
t~r* 



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^CALIFORNIA 

AND THE 

OLD SOUTHWEST 





Class T$7 Q. . 

Book _i££ 

Copyright If 

COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



The Missions of California 

and 
The Old Southwest 




Photo, by Hallett-Taylor Co., Corona Jo 



Front Patio, San Juan Capistrano Mission 



The Missions of California 

AND 

The Old Southwest 



BY 



JESSE S. HILDRUP 

With 35 Illustrations from Photographs 




* 



CHICAGO 
A. C. McCLURG & CO. 

1907 



Copyright 
A. C. McClurg & Co. 

1907 
Published March t6, 1907 






Horary of congress! 

| Two Copies Received I 

I MAH 21 1907 I 

._ Copyright Entry * 

CLASS A XXC.No, 
COPY B 



THE photographs used for illustrating this volume 
have been procured largely through the assistance of 
The Hallett -Taylor Co., Coronado, California, who have 
given permission for the inclusion of a number of their own 
views, as have also Messrs. Putnam & Valentine, Los 
Angeles, and the Detroit Photographic Co. 




JTfjt lafefgffte $rtss 

R. R. DONNELLEY & SONS COMPANY 
CHICAGO 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER PAGE 

I. California and its Early Inhabitants . . 13 

II. First Attempts to Christianize the Natives 18 

III. The Franciscans 20 

IV. The Advent of Junipero Serra .... 23 
V. The First Missionary Expedition .... 26 

VI. The Indians of the Missions 28 

VII. The Padres as Agriculturists 30 

VIII. The Wealth of the Missions 32 

IX. San Diego 34 

X. San' Carlos Borremeo 38 

XI. San Antonio de Padua .... . . 40 

XII. San Gabriel, Arcangel 42 

XIII. San Luis Obispo de Tolosa ...... 45 

XIV. San Francisco de Asis . 48 

XV. San Juan Capistrano -49 

XVI. Santa Clara 51 

XVII. San Buenaventura 55 



CHAPTER PAGE 

XVIII. Santa Barbara 57 

XIX. La Purisima Concepcion 60 

XX. Santa Cruz 62 

XXI. La Soledad 63 

XXII. San Jose • . . 65 

XXIII. San Juan, Bautista 67 

XXIV. San Miguel 68 

XXV. San Fernando, Rey de Espagna ... 69 

XXVI. San Luis, Rey de Francia 71 

XXVII. San Jose de Guadalupe 74 

XXVIII. Santa Inez 75 

XXIX. San Rafael, Arcangel , 76 

XXX. Chapels 77 

XXXI. The Missions of Lower California . '. 79 

XXXII. The Missions of Texas .91 

XXXIII. The Missions of New Mexico .... 96 

XXXIV. The Missions of Arizona ...... 99 



[v] 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



PAGE 

Front Patio, San Juan Capistrano Mission Frontispiece 

The Father Superior at Santa Barbara Mission 16 

The Sacred Garden, Santa Barbara Mission . . 18 

Interior, San Gabriel Mission 24 

Tower, San Carlos Mission, Carmel Valley . . 24 

San Carlos Mission, Carmel Valley 28 > 

A Corridor, San Juan Capistrano Mission . . . 32 

San Diego Mission 34 

San Carlos Mission, Monterey 38 y 

San Antonio de Padua Mission 40 

San Gabriel Mission 42 

Campanile, San Gabriel Mission 42 

San Luis Obispo Mission 46 

Musical Wheel, Matracha, and Music Books, San 

Juan Capistrano Mission 48 

Dolores, or San Francisco de Asis, Mission ... 48 

Two Views of San Juan Capistrano Mission . . 50 -. 



PAGE 

Santa Clara Mission 52 

San Buenaventura Mission 56 

Santa Barbara Mission 58 

La Purisima Concepcion Mission 60 

Ruins of La Soledad Mission 64 

San Juan Bautista Mission 66 

San Miguel Mission 68 

San Fernando Mission 70 

San Luis Rey Mission 72 

Santa Inez Mission 74 

Los Angeles Chapel, from the Plaza ..... 78 

The Belfry, Pala Chapel 80 

San Xavier Mission, Tucson, Arizona .... 88 

Concepcion La Purisima de Acuna Mission, Texas 92 

San Jose de Aguayo Mission, Texas 94 

Exterior View and Altar, San Xavier Mission, 

Tucson, Arizona 98 



[ vii ] 



INTRODUCTORY 

IN musing over the history of the old Missions, the mind is led to inquire as to the benefits that have been 
conferred upon mankind by the labors, triumphs, and defeat of the padres during their brief sojourn in 
the Southwest. Though their work was confined to a few heathen tribes, its pure and unselfish purpose 
and beneficent results cannot be questioned, for these are attested in the annals of those days. The fact that 
great and lasting benefits were thus bestowed upon the Indian is conclusively established by reference to his 
primitive life, and to his subsequent condition under the care and tutelage of the Missions. The degree and 
importance of such benefits are evident in that they affected favorably his earthly, and provided for his immortal, 
welfare. Moreover, that which promotes the progress of one portion of mankind works ultimately for the 
benefit of the entire race. The wonderful amelioration of the moral and social lives of wild men living in a 
Western wilderness, which was effected by the padres during a short period of sixty-odd years in California, is 
known throughout the world, and millions of the family of man have both rejoiced and mourned over the bright 
career of the Fathers and its fateful ending. Regret for the sad fate of the Missions is almost universal. The 
philanthropic American grieves over the defeat of pious efforts and a grand purpose, that surviving, would have 
elevated the Indian races and preserved them from extinction. All who read and reflect, if they have an 
instinctive sense of right and of love for humanity, must deplore the passing of the Missions; for their spiritual 
power and influence not only reclaimed the savage, but still lived after their suppression, to prepare the way 
for the civilization which came later under American sovereignty. What more could be said for those heroes 
who sacrificed themselves that the pariahs of an unexplored region might be saved? May honor and glory 
ever rest upon the names of the old padres of the Missions of California and the Old Southwest! 

J. S. H. 
Chicago, January i, 1907. 



The Missions of California 

and 
The Old Southwest 



THE MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA AND THE 

OLD SOUTHWEST 



CHAPTER I 
CALIFORNIA AND ITS EARLY INHABITANTS 

CALIFORNIA, the land of golden sunshine and skies of ineffable blue, starlit at night by a glittering 
host; of most genial climate, tempered alike to the old and the young, the delicate and the vigorous, 
— a climate equalled nowhere on earth but along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea; the garden of the 
olive, the myrtle, the orange, and the vine; the primitive home of the most stupendous trees, — trees that lift 
their heads among the clouds, and reach maturity only when thousands of years have passed since their sprouting 
from the soil; the home of the stately redwood and the pine, the oak, the sycamore, the pepper, the manzanita, 
and almost every species of arboreal growth in all the realms of nature; — California was in 1767 selected by 
the Catholic Church as a most promising vineyard for the gathering of souls to its bosom from among the wild 
heathen that inhabited the lands in the southern half of Alta California. 

This chosen land, so wonderfully endowed by Nature, made possible the spiritual and civilizing purposes 
of the Church by the very configuration of its surface, the fertility of its soil, its temperate and subtropical 
climates, and its abundant waters, which were stored in natural reservoirs and available for lowland cultivation 

[13] 



THE MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA AND THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

by the process of irrigation, and by rivers, creeks, and streams running to the sea and to inland lakes from 
every point of the compass. 

In California there are very many kinds of local climate, and all within the limits of the temperate zone. 
A contour map most strikingly illustrates the causes of the variation in temperature in different localities. 
Heat, moisture, and soil give vitality to every germ within the bosom of the earth; and the direction of the 
sun's rays determines the degree of heat. The general trend of the principal mountain ranges is from northwest 
to southeast, enclosing several great valleys. The lesser ranges and their spurs, with foot-hills, canons, and 
arroyos, penetrate the country everywhere, twisting and turning in endless confusion. These ranges enclose 
innumerable pocket-like depressions of various dimensions, and valleys, where the rays of the sun enter at 
different angles; and thus the heat is increased or diminished to a degree that is equivalent to a change in the 
general climate. This natural adaptation of the surface for modifying the solar heat is accountable for the 
exuberance and the great variety of the products of the earth, which gave joy to the hearts of the old padres 
as they wrought out in these primeval wilds a paradise for the Indians and themselves. 

The conquest of Mexico in the dawn of the sixteenth century by Hernando Cortes opened to the Spanish 
Empire, the Church, and the people a vast vision of boundless possessions along the coast of the Pacific from 
the Arctic Circle to the Straits of Magellan. All were eager to gather the fabulous wealth of the American 
continents, and to reap a great harvest of the souls of heathen tribes abiding there. The Missions were a 
logical consequence of the conquest. The Californias were adjacent to Mexico. They were in climate, soil, and 
mineral riches the gems of the coast lands most accessible. The Indians of the valleys and plains bordering the 
ocean were separated into small tribes, with limited territory, usually bounded by creeks that ran from the 
mountains to the sea. They were gentle and peaceable, and easily converted to the Catholic faith. The food 

[14] 



CALIFORNIA AND ITS EARLY INHABITANTS 

of those near the coast was fish, seals, and sea-otters, and these were in great abundance and variety; but there 
was a scarcity of native products of the soil. The great and luxuriant production of fruits, vegetables, and 
cereals now grown there is due mainly to the labors and creature tastes of the old padres. Animal food was a 
rarity among the Indians, owing to their inability to hunt their game with effective weapons. Their powers 
of invention were feebly developed in that direction, yet the forests furnished deer and bear, and the open 
country the bison in limited quantities. The Indians of the plains had crude methods of tilling the soil, and 
they domesticated the bison, which they herded and reared upon their pasture lands. Using only natural 
irrigation, their farming was restricted to a few products and small areas. They were skilful in building canoes 
of pine, with many oars. These boats were remarkably seaworthy and resembled somewhat the ancient galleys. 
Their skill in working in wood was also apparent in their domestic and fishing utensils. 

They were of good stature and fair complexion. The women were small, of pleasant countenance and 
disposition. The clothing of these coast Indians was mostly made from the skin of the sea-wolf, rudely tanned. 
Their habits and morals were better than those of many tribes of mountain Indians, living more remote from 
the ocean. They were not warlike, and usually escaped in their canoes to the coast islands when their lands 
were invaded by the mountain tribes. There is an oval mound at Santa Barbara near the sea, of about fifty 
feet in altitude, and three acres in extent; it was formed in the course of ages by the collection of fish bones 
deposited by Indians after the banquets which they held at gatherings of the coast tribes in council. A Portuguese 
admiral who navigated the coast in 1540 tarried here for several months, and finally died and was buried on 
the Island of Santa Rosa. He named this locality the City of Fleets, by reason of the great number of canoes 
that met him at his anchorage, the natives having rowed to the spot to give him a warm welcome. They seemed 
to be natural sailors, made so by the necessities of life, as their principal means of subsistence came from the 

[i5] 



THE MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA AND THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

waters. The next navigator in these regions, Vizcaino, who appeared in 1602, explored the coast of California 
and Mexico for more than eight hundred leagues. He investigated the history of the coast and inland tribes, and 
in his reports to the Spanish Government, furnishes the most reliable information in regard to the country and 
its inhabitants. It was upon his statements and his experience that the home authorities, civil and ecclesiastical, 
based their plans for the possession of the lands and the regeneration of the natives. For these purposes they 
provided for the founding of a series of presidios guarded by soldiers, and of Missions from San Diego to 
Monterey — the former to hold and protect, and the latter to do the work of developing and civilizing, the 
country and the aborigines. The old padres found by experience that Vizcaino had painted too vividly, but 
without doubt for a good purpose; yet the Missions atoned in results for all the errors of judgment. 

If the mountain and more inland tribes had been of the pacific nature of the coast tribes, the work of the 
Missions would have been much less perilous and more effective. One of the few murders, that of Padre Jayme, 
committed by the mountain tribes, and the burning of the Mission building at San Diego on the third of 
October, 1775, indicate to some extent the difference in character and habits between the cruel and warlike tribes 
of the interior and mountain regions, and those of the coast and the pastoral tribes of the valleys and plains. It 
is doubtless the fact that the Mission labors were largely confined to these latter tribes, in consequence of their 
more docile nature and habits, which made them readily respond to religious influence, and far less dangerous 
than the bloodthirsty natives of the interior. 

Locality, food, climate, and other forms of environment in the course of time make a radical difference in 
the characteristics, manners, habits, and disposition of mankind, so that traces of connection with the generic stock 
may be entirely lost, except in the language, which preserves the roots of the mother tongue. Hence the variety 
in the life records, as found in the actual history of these native races. It is impossible to know much about 

[16] 




Photo, by Hallett-Taylor Co., Coronado 



The Father Superior at Santa Barbara Mission 



CALIFORNIA AND ITS EARLY INHABITANTS 

them, comparatively nothing of their past. We know of them only what we are taught by those who discovered 
them about four centuries ago, and by contact with them in more recent times. When we found them, we called 
them all heathen, though they manifested various grades of morals and intelligence, from the low degree of the 
Digger Indian to the greater development exemplified by the most enlightened tribes. 

The origin and settlement of the aborigines of the Pacific coast wilds are veiled in the mists of forgotten 
ages, which are impenetrable to the eye of historic research. The subject may interest the speculative mind, 
with its instinctive longing to learn the unknown in the past and the future; but such knowledge is not necessary 
to this sketch of a unique civilization, and it must remain concealed until the lifting of the curtain which shall 
reveal the work and the plans of the Creator. 



O] 



THE MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA AND THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

CHAPTER II 
FIRST ATTEMPTS TO CHRISTIANIZE THE NATIVES 

IN 1767 King Charles III. of Spain organized an expedition to sail to Mexico, to proceed thence to the 
Californias and take possession of them, to build Missions for the conversion of the Indians there, and 
to protect and defend the country from the Russians. Before this time hordes of these semibarbarians 
had come down from Siberia and Alaska, and occupied Northern California down to the. Bay of San Francisco; 
had established forts, churches, and settlements along the coast and inland; opened the fur trade with the 
natives; begun cultivation of the lands, and engaged in those industries incident to development and permanent 
occupancy. Here appears not only a vital collision between two European powers to gratify "their lust of con- 
quest, but the first germ of antagonism between the Catholic and the Greek Church in the wilds of, North 
America. 

About one hundred and ninety years earlier than this time, and long before the Russian occupancy, Sir 
Francis Drake anchored near the bay and planted the English flag upon the coast, claiming the country for the 
crown of England. The chaplain of the expedition read the services of the Anglican Church, and invoked the 
blessing of Providence on the claim then made for the lands discovered; but it does not appear that England 
ever perfected her claim by permanent possession, or ever attempted to renew the same until 1847, at tne Bay 
of Monterey, when she most signally failed. 

It is a most significant fact that these are the only instances, except an attempt made by the Jesuits in 
1688, where the light of Christianity, in even a single ray, ever penetrated the moral darkness of innumerable 

[18] 




Photo, by Hailett-Taylor Co., Corona Jo 



The Sacred Garden, Santa Barbara Mission 



FIRST ATTEMPTS TO CHRISTIANIZE THE NATIVES 

tribes of savages, who roamed, lived, and died in and among the forests, mountains, and valleys, along the 
rivers, creeks, and sea coast, from the Bering Strait to the Gulf of California. 

The Order of the Jesuits, with their usual zeal, energy, and daring, in 1683 explored Lower California 
from Cape St. Lucas to the mouth of the Colorado River, and commenced missionary work among the natives; 
they likewise in 1540 penetrated the hot and forbidding wilds of Arizona and New Mexico, among the ruthless 
Apaches and kindred savage tribes, seeking to win heathen to the Church, and a harvest of gold in the fabled 
regions of the seven cities of Cebola, along the Gila River. Fathers Kukus and John Maria Salvo Tierra 
travelled more than one thousand miles on foot in the heart of the deserts, mountains, and scorching plains, 
until, worn out with hardships, they died prematurely, leaving behind them no monuments of their enthusiasm, 
or of the saving grace of the Church. 



[19] 



THE MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA AND THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

CHAPTER III 
THE FRANCISCANS 

IN Lower California the Jesuits labored for eighty years with much greater immediate results than in other 
regions of the Southwest; but in Alta California they had at least sowed the seeds of a harvest which 
is being reaped by the Church to-day, through the growth and beneficence of the noted Pious Fund cre- 
ated by them. This fund was the child of their economy, and for it they had toiled until their expulsion 
from their field of labors, in 1767. The Franciscans assumed the task of the Jesuits; under the direction of 
Padre Junipero Serra, the president and spiritual father of the proposed Missions, they entered the abandoned 
regions in 1767, where in less than two generations they wrought out a redemption for the souls of wild men, 
and a unique civilization so marvellous in its benevolence and elevating tendencies, its Christianizing and ameli- 
orating influences, and its progressive life, that all enlightened lovers of humanity have wondered at, while 
revering, Serra's fame and works. 

Junipero Serra was born at Petra, on the Isle of Majorca, November 29, 17 13. He became a novice 
on September 14, 1730, and entered a convent at Palma, the capital city of Majorca. He became a broad 
and finished scholar, was made professor of philosophy, and later received the degree of D. D. He was 
splendid, in oratory : " Literary men listened to him with infatuation at the brilliancy of his style and the power 
of his speech. An enemy once said that his sermons should be printed in letters of gold." 

He was possessed in early life of an intense desire to go among the Indians. He loved to preach 
among the poor and lowly ; his highest aspiration was to labor and live out his days amid the wild countries 

[20] 



THE FRANCISCANS 

* 
and peoples of the earth, and do them all the good in his power. He might have shone and grown great 

in the high places of Europe, but he turned from these alluring prospects with no sigh of regret. 

His hope, now ripening into a definite purpose, was that he should move in these grooves of labor and 
usefulness. It involved sacrifice, piety, and the dedication of all his powers to the salvation of those human 
beings who by some inscrutable plan seemed to have been ignored in the progress of mankind. It was not a 
freakish impulse born of pious enthusiasm, but the logical offspring of his education and the traditions of the 
monastic order to which he belonged. Besides this, he believed most intensely in the theology of his time, 
and the burning thought with him was to save the Indian, who was denied the atonement of divine grace by 
no fault of his own, from the yawning circles of Dante's Hell. 

St. Francis of Assisi, in the early part of the thirteenth century, founded the Society of Franciscans. He was 
a pious enthusiast of great learning and an unquenchable love for the lower classes of humanity. The cultured 
and the great could care for themselves, but the poor peasantry were in a pitiable condition everywhere in 
Europe; and he became impressed with the idea that the Church had a most solemn duty, through some 
special agency, to exert her potent influence to uplift into a better secular and spiritual life these down-trodden 
members of her fold. He cast about him for some choice spirits in the priesthood, who like himself could 
be inspired with a sense of the importance of this duty, and would devote their lives zealously to its fulfilment. 
He did not search in vain, and under the authority of the Church he organized a society. Its declared object 
was to shun wealth, ease, and luxury, as well as worldly rank and power, the members to give all the energies 
of their being to the work they had undertaken. They would be clothed in humble garb, gladly enduring 
hardships and the reproaches of men, that they might the more effectually labor among the lowly, the degraded, 
the down-trodden, the ignorant, and the superstitious in all lands. They pledged the Order to perpetual 

[21] 



THE MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA AND THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

poverty, that they might not be diverted from their holy mission by earthly pleasures. Upon the cross they 
avowed a determination to labor for the cause of the divine Master alone, without self-aggrandizement or hope 
of earthly reward, and to bring to all the degraded and unfortunate the joys of His redemption. They became 
learned, knowing that knowledge is power, that they might call it into requisition for the better execution of 
their task. They studied those practical sciences and arts which might help them to meet every emergency 
that might arise within the scope of their mission. They were temperate in all things, that they might be able 
to rely on their mental and physical powers in times of trial and danger. They subjected themselves to 
severe tests, and trained all their faculties for success. 



[M] 



THE ADVENT OF JUNIPERO SERRA 

CHAPTER IV 
THE ADVENT OF JUNIPERO SERRA 

JUNIPERO SERRA came into possession of the most exalted qualifications for his marvellous work in 
Alta California by the inheritance of a loving soul and wonderful intellectual powers; he acquired remarkable 

erudition; his lofty ideals were nurtured in the discipline, precepts, and traditions of his monastic 
order; he attained an eloquence which alike convinced the minds and enraptured the hearts of men, were they 
civilized or heathen; and his gentle kindness made permanent his conquests. He had no peer among the 
disciples of his order since the day of its birth. With such a character, such training, and with a zeal for the 
conversion of the Indian more intense than the mystical fires upon the altars of the gods, it is less astonishing 
to enlightened faith that he fashioned a marvellous civilization in the dark realms of our Western coast. 
Yearning for the souls of the heathen, he was fated to find his call at last as a redeemer of the pagans of 
California. 

On August 28, 1749, he sailed from Cadiz with a select band from the convent in Palma, who were in 
sympathy with his life purpose; on the seventh of December he arrived at Vera Cruz, and on New Year's 
Day, 1750, he entered the Apostolic College of San Fernando, in the City of Mexico, which subsequently 
became the headquarters of the new Missions. His earnest soul could brook no delay, and the authorities 
appointed him and Father Palou to work among the Indians of Cerro Gordo, one hundred miles from 
Queretaro, a province many leagues in extent, a mountainous and wild region without a vestige of civilization. 
From here in the dawn of triumph among the natives he was withdrawn to labor among the faithless and 

[>3] 



THE MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA AND THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

murderous Apaches far to the north, a race with many branches, which outstripped in fiendish traits of 
character all other tribes of this continent. Other missionaries preceding him had been subjected to the greatest 
hardships and maltreatment and finally had been murdered by these savages ; but with full knowledge of such 
perils he immediately began preparation to enter upon his dangerous mission. Yet the kindly Providence that 
guarded his destiny interposed; his orders were recalled, and he retired temporarily to his convent. From this 
centre his labors were ceaseless, extending their influence everywhere for the good of the cause, with the most 
astonishing results, and proclaiming him a leader of men in this crusade in the unknown wilds. 

In 1767 he was commissioned to take the command of the mission work in California. At fifty-four 
years of age he began there the great chapter of the record of his life. He had found his life work; and with 
what supreme energy of mind and body he toiled, suffered, and triumphed is one of the marvels of human 
history. In exalted thought, Christian kindness, devotion to his God, and in energetic action he was without 
a rival in the mission field. In seventeen years of arduous labor and severe trials he wore out the gifts 
nature had so lavishly bestowed upon him, and he died at the Mission of San Carlos, on the twenty-eighth 
day of August, 1784, at the age of seventy years, nine months, and four days. 

Father Palou, his friend of a lifetime, said at his death: 

"Here is one of whom posterity will say, 'He was the greatest man that ever trod the sands of Alta 
California.' 

By sincere respect for the nature and rights of the Indian, he conquered; but he led him through love. 
Force was foreign to his mind. His courage was heroic as that of a martyr. He had led a noble life: 
untiring labor, devotion to duty, and care for the lowly and the degraded were his ceaseless duties. He 
educated, controlled, guided, loved, and helped all; he gave them occupation and a spiritual and practical 




Photos, by Hallctt-Taylor Co , Coronado 

Interior, San Gabriel Mission. — Tower, San Carlos Mission, Carmel Valley 



THE ADVENT OF JUNIPERO SERRA 

purpose in life; while ministering to the sick, feeding the hungry, and clothing the naked, he taught them to 
be self-supporting. His was the first civilization that ever dawned upon the benighted natives of heathen 
California, and improved the conditions of their lives by showing them how to obtain the various and generous 
products of their rich soil by cultivation. It is a singular and noteworthy fact that Nature had ill provided for 
the sustenance of the natives in these coast regions, by the fruits and vegetables of the soil, the animals of the 
forests, or the birds of the air. She was bountiful only in the foods found in her waters. 

In a wonderful manner the trite adage, "History repeats itself," is exemplified in the missionary work in 
California. Every act, emotion, thought, and experience of mankind is engraved here in the lives and labors 
of the padres. Their fitness for the great task before them was sufficient for every emergency. Their 
marvellous efficiency as instructors was shown in their teaching by precept and example to the ignorant natives 
more than fifty different arts, professions, and occupations known to European civilization, and with considerable 
skill in the adoption of models for their practical use. 



I>5] 



THE MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA AND THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

CHAPTER V 
THE FIRST MISSIONART EXPEDITION 

JOSE DE GALVEZ, the Visitador-General of New Spain, was the practical head of the first missionary 
expedition of the Franciscans, and was a man of extraordinary energy, forethought, and practical ability 
He fashioned and controlled the enterprise, with Junipero Serra as President of the Missions, both in 
Lower and Upper California. Galvez deserves a more extended notice than the limits of this sketch permit, 
for without his promotion and supervision the founding of these Missions might have been, to this day, a 
pious dream of the Church. Great force of character, wisdom, and executive ability in carrying into effect the 
schemes of the Missions were as necessary as pious zeal and enthusiasm. The first plan evolved in the light 
of the crude knowledge of Vizcaino was to locate a Mission at San Diego, one at Monterey, and another 
between them at Buenaventura, on the southern coast, about equally distant from each. Galvez' foresight 
provided for everything essential to the success of the enterprise — provisions, transportation, explorations, 
garrisons, education, ornaments, pictures, holy vessels for the c'hurches; materials, architects, and artisans for 
construction; and all incidentals needful to a scheme of colonization and the redemption of the aboriginal 
savages of that wild, rugged, unexplored country. To provide for the future, he directed the taking of two 
hundred head of cattle from the old Jesuit Mission in Lower California, and a full supply of seeds of 
vegetables, grains, flowers, and fruits that grew in Spain, and could be reproduced in the new region. Thus 
he not only benefited the Missions, but bequeathed rich gifts to later generations in California. The Missions 
and farms were his nurslings. He selected and packed the furnishings for the churches, and left nothing 
undone to secure success. 

[26] 



THE FIRST MISSIONARY EXPEDITION 

From 1769 to 1822 California, like Mexico, was under the rule of Spain. On achieving her independence 
Mexico made California a part of her own territory. During that half-century the Missions had their happy 
and prosperous era. They were not interfered with by the Spanish, or in any way oppressed, but rather 
encouraged, as the pride of the Church; and the boast of the State was that they had checked the 
encroachments of the Russians on the north. It is true that the Greek Church never found a proselyte south 
of the Bay of San Francisco after the old padres had well begun their work. 

In this latter period the principal pueblos, or towns, founded were San Diego, Los Angeles, San Juan 
Capistrano, San Luis Rey, San Gabriel, San Buenaventura, San Luis Obispo, San Fernando, San Pedro, 
Santa Barbara, and Monterey. These towns, though small, were important as centres of trade, intelligence, and 
mission work. They were simply clusters of adobe houses around the greater Missions, but from them 
radiated a most powerful influence, that dominated all things from the Mexican line to the great bay. This 
is perhaps the most conclusive proof of their claim to be the original colony of California. 

January 9, 1769, the ship "San Carlos" sailed for San Diego; on February 15 the "San Antonio" 
sailed from Cape St. Lucas; and on June 16 the "San Jose" sailed. Some of the padres were with the 
"San Carlos." The "San Jose" was probably lost at sea, for no tidings were ever heard of her after she left 
port. The other ships safely anchored in the Bay of San Diego. The land expedition was separated into two 
divisions. One, commanded by Captain Rivera of the Company of Cuesa, left Santa Ana, Lower California, 
in September, 1768, and after some delay at Vellicata, in that province, resumed its journey. It reached 
San Diego in about two months, finding the "San Carlos" and the "San Antonio" awaiting them at their 
anchorage in the bay. Serra left with the second division, which tarried on the route while he founded the 
Mission of San Fernando at Vellicata; after which, with Don Portola, the Royal Governor of California, the 
expedition started for San Diego. It arrived in about forty-five days, on July 1, 1769. 

[27] 



THE MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA AND THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

CHAPTER VI 
THE INDIANS OF THE MISSIONS 

THE Mission Indians, that constituted the flocks belonging to the various Missions, are and ever will 
be a problem to the antiquarians. Of their history before the time of the colonization we have no 
definite knowledge; but this much seems unquestionable: a great difference in character, disposition, and 
habits existed between the natives of the valleys and plains of the coast and those of the deserts and moun- 
tains of the interior. The former were by nature peaceable, gentle, and amenable to progressive influences ; the 
latter were untamable, warlike, cruel, and unresponsive to any civilizing or moral forces. Locality, climate, 
food, and the struggle for existence may reasonably account for these opposite traits of character and habits of 
life in the coast and interior Indians. If this be true, then the lines of the Missions were so laid as best to 
promote the conversion of souls, and to effect a great practical improvement in their lives. The general trend 
and localizing of the Missions, from north to south, brought within their vicinities and easy reach the vast 
majority of the valley and plain tribes of the coast, and excluded by distance and the rugged barriers erected 
by nature the inland tribes. Be these reflections true or false, the early history of the native races of the 
Pacific coast is an enigma that never will be satisfactorily solved. The coast Indians had advanced in some 
things beyond the Stone Age; they were adepts in the construction of wooden vessels for domestic use, idols 
of gold and silver, and weapons, offensive and defensive, and for hunting. For fishing their canoes and implements 
were very ingenious. The tanning of skins of sea wolves for garments was more perfect than in Castile. 

Doubtless the Indians varied in character and life in California as they did everywhere along the coast and 

[28] 




Photo, by Hallctt-Taylor Co., Coronado 



San Carlos Mission, Carmel Valley 



THE INDIANS OF THE MISSIONS 

contiguous territory, subject to like natural laws and conditions. The pastoral Indians of California closely 
resembled in their peaceful habits and tastes the Pueblos of the lands east of them, but the latter were more 
advanced in their ability to command the wealth of the soil by their rude arts of cultivation. The mountain 
Indians east of San Diego were warlike and cruel, and never came within the influence of the padres; in fact, 
they destroyed the first Mission built there, and were controlled only by the soldiers. 

Out of such crude material to form communities of Christians enjoying civilized life with all its comforts, 
luxuries, and refinements, would seem an impossible undertaking; but holy and indomitable purpose prevailed. 
In ten years from the founding of the first Mission at San Diego in 1769, the padres had thirty-five hundred 
converted Indians under their instruction and control, and solving the problems of a new and progressive life. 
In the year 1800 their flock of converts had increased to fifteen thousand, all under the ameliorating influences 
of eighteen Missions, conducted in all their affairs by about forty padres. The significance of their immense 
labors appears more prominently in results; they had by most assiduous training converted tribes of 
savages into skilful silversmiths, millers, saddlers, bakers, vintagers, shoemakers, tailors, hatters, guitar-makers, 
masons, winemakers, fishermen, wood-cutters, stone-cutters, weavers, sacristans, musicians, hunters, farmers, 
herders, tilemakers, physicians, mariners, and workers in more than thirty other occupations, arts, and industries 
known to the Spaniards. When taught, the Indian became the principal factor in all the labors, improvements, 
and progress of Mission life. This introduction of the arts of civilized life prepared the way for the coming of 
the white race, and the b.irth of the Golden State. 



[29] 



THE MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA AND THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

CHAPTER VII 
THE PADRES AS AGRICULTURISTS 

OF all the heritage enjoyed by the present generation in California, descending from the old padres, the 
greatest corporeal blessings are the fruits, wines, foods, flowers, seeds, plants, and trees — natural 
products of the soil and climate of Old Spain, the Garden of the Ancients. Without these the far- 
famed land would be shorn of her beauty and her food products, and as ill fitted for sustaining a numerous 
population as when occupied by tribes of primitive red men. The old padres made it possible for the white 
man to make her the Garden of the Moderns. 

All this advancement was accomplished in about thirty years after the establishment of the first Mission in 
San Diego in 1769. Another equal period of mission work and great results by this band of holy men 
followed. The harvest of souls received into the Church was commensurate with the progress made in 
material, corporeal, and social life. Then blight and ruin fell upon them; life under the regime of the 
Franciscans ceased forever. To that period of progress and enlightenment California may turn with amazement, 
love, and gratitude, as the foundation of her greatness and glory of to-day. 

These achievements, strenuously made and suddenly lost, all in about sixty years' time, were the first 
lessons in the reclaiming of savage races in California. Looking backward to prehistoric times, we see the 
forefathers of the Mission Indians, rude, uncouth, river-drift men, wandering through the valleys, along the 
rivers and streams, in search of the food that Nature had stored for them in her waters more generously than 
upon the land, and more readily within reach of their feeble powers. 

[3o] 



THE PADRES AS AGRICULTURISTS 

Pastoral and agricultural industries were the principal means upon which the Missions depended for their 
support and maintenance, and for the acquisition of wealth. The vineyards were planted for the pleasures of the 
table, as the pious padres did not deny themselves creature comforts; hunting and fishing were to them sources 
of very considerable revenue; in short, all the products of nature and art were made to subserve their sustenance, 
their comfort, and their pleasure. The spiritual life first; the temporal life next. And neither was neglected. 

In all the greater Missions, the holy temple was the most prominent building. Over the main entrance was 
reared the tower with its bells; then came the residences, the quarters and guardhouse for the soldiers, houses for 
the Indian converts; after which the warehouses, granaries, prisons, and cemeteries. The Indian houses were set 
apart by themselves within a walled inclosure, called a rancheria. The orchards and gardens, both flower and 
vegetable, were properlv located. The industrial establishments were also in a place by themselves. The entire 
Mission and grounds were laid out with streets and alleys after the forms of civilized life; everywhere regularity 
and system were strictly observed. 

The full measure of the progress made among the primitive fields, valleys, and mountains in the material 
things of life during a period covering only two generations of time, may be estimated in the amount of 
property acquired by the padres. In 1830 they had more than one million head of cattle pasturing on Mission 
lands, one hundred thousand horses, and almost innumerable other domestic animals. Their yearly crop of 
wheat averaged one hundred and fifty thousand bushels; and barley, oats, and other crops were in like 
proportion. Corn was not a climatic favorite, but was cultivated to some extent. The general and unfailing 
products — agricultural and manufactured — were wheat, barley, oats, beans, tallow, soap, leather, hides, wool, oil, 
cotton, hemp, linen, wine, brandy, tobacco, salt, and soda. The fruits raised were as great in variety, as rich 
in qualitv, and profuse in quantity then as now, subject to the restriction of acreage only. 

[3i] 



THE MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA AND THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

CHAPTER VIII 
THE WEALTH OF THE MISSIONS 

IN the latter days of their prosperity, when all the Missions had been founded and their surroundings 
completed, two hundred thousand head of cattle were killed yearly, netting a profit usually of ten dollars 
each. The hides and tallow were the chief articles of commerce with cities on the Atlantic coast, Boston 
leading in the early thirties of the last century. The flesh of the cattle found consumers among the Mission 
Indians and the needy elsewhere. The padres permitted none to want for food in the regions around them. 
Their hospitality, like their faith, was boundless. All the Missions from San Diego to San Francisco were 
enriched by the planting and cultivation of extensive orchards, gardens, and vineyards around them; while they 
were beautiful with flowers of every variety, hue, and fragrance, some of native origin, and some brought as 
seeds or plants, from other lands within the limits of the temperate and tropical belts. 

In truth, California was then to a limited extent, and within the lines of Mission endeavor, the garden 
of the earth. Blossoms and perfumes were hanging on and emitted from every vine, plant, shrub, and tree 
capable of bloom and odor; for the old padres loved beauty of nature and art, as they loved purity and beauty 
of soul, and all other good things. 

The annual revenues of the Missions from sales and trade, tithes and rents, would aggregate in their latter 
and fully prosperous days nearly three million dollars; and it is stated upon authority that the padres sent to 
the Church in Spain and Mexico during the time of their existence more than twenty million dollars from their 
surplus accumulations of wealth. A still greater amount was taken from them in property and treasures by the 




Photograph by S. L Willard 



A. Corridor, San Juan Capistrano Mission 



THE WEALTH OF THE MISSIONS 

Mexican Government under the orders of confiscation, which were finally passed by the Mexican Congress on 
the seventeenth of August, 1833. The religion and morals of the Missions were swept away at this time, 
with their material progress and the monuments thereof. Under the curse of greed, the better life of the 
Indian neophyte, with his hopes in the future, passed into oblivion with the wreck of his Mission home. The 
padres could protect him no longer. He fled a fugitive to the mountains, where his short-lived civilization 
disappeared forever. 

Avarice, bred in the hearts of the Mexican authorities and people in the era of reckless lawlessness that 
succeeded the revolt of that country from Spain, extinguished old-time reverence for the Church and its precepts, 
and produced a breed of rascally officials. Soldiers of fortune who had served in the recent wars were now 
without regular occupation; and these, with other adventurous men, united in a general invasion of Alta 
California, to seize and possess the rich properties which the Franciscans had created through toil, privation, and 
danger, but now were powerless to defend when the merciless hand of spoliation was laid upon them. 

The old padres fled like the Indians, and left behind them all the fruits of their glorious labors and 
triumphs to the fate that overwhelmed them. The vandal destroyed that which he could not create. A most 
benign and unique civilization disappeared for a time under the superstition and ignorance of the Mexican and 
his rule; but to him even it imparted an influence which chastened and elevated him into a new and better life. 



[ 33 1 



THE MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA AND THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

CHAPTER IX 
SAN DIEGO 

WHEN land and ship expeditions arrived at San Diego a real experience in the great colonizing schemes 
was encountered. The men were in bad condition from poor food and water, thirty or more had 
died. The Indians had turned from friendliness to hostility and thieving. But zeal and energy were 
irresistible. On July 16 the cross was erected; in a temporary shelter of branches and reeds, in the presence 
of soldiers and sailors, mass was celebrated by Serra, and the bell was rung from the branch of a tree. All sung 
"Veni Creator"; the standard of royalty was planted and given to the winds, the water of the San Diego River 
running by the locality was blessed, firearms were discharged for the want of music, and the "smoke of powder 
was incense"; and so the ceremony of founding a mission was performed, and the land was claimed for God 
and the King of Spain, while the poor' Indian, dazed at the wonderful doings, stood helpless, while his hunting 
grounds and his personal liberty were taken from him without his consent, and without compensation. This 
was followed by the founding of a Mission. The location is in the San Diego canon, which runs from the 
south extension of the Santa Ana Range to the sea, a distance of sixty miles due east and west; the Mission 
is about ten miles from its mouth. The canon is enclosed the entire length by lines of high and precipitous 
bluffs; the bed is nearly a flat surface of one-half to three miles in width, watered by the river. From the 
neighboring mountains came the wild Indians who murdered Father Jayme. There is a grand and awe-inspiring 
view from the spot where the cross of the Redeemer was first raised, with its face to the ocean and its rear to 
the mountains in California. It is two miles north of the old town, and four miles from the new town on the 

T34] 




Photo, by Hallett-Taylor Co., Co 



San Diego Mission 



SAN DIEGO 

bay. These old fathers knew almost by inspiration how to select the best Mission sites, elevated on high 
tablelands, surrounded by large areas of fruitful soil, abundance of pasture, vallevs well watered by nature's 
irrigation canals, and with the Mission zanjas to complete the system. Wherever practicable, the Missions were 
in view of the ocean, but always beyond the reach of the hostile guns of passing rovers sailing under a free 
flag. For the coast line was not well protected bv the international police in those days. 

About the middle of August the Indians made an attack on Serra and his assistants. They killed one 
Jose Maria, but were quickly repelled by the soldiers of the Mission. Subsequently they brought in their 
wounded to be cared for, and were won to amity and conversion by the kindness of Serra. 

In October, 1775, the wild Indians from the mountains east of the Mission, to the number of one thousand 
or more, attacked the settlement; they burned the buildings, robbed the church, and murdered Padre Jayme and 
two others. Again the kindness and forbearance of Serra prevailed against the spirit of vengeance inflaming the 
hearts of the viceroy and soldiers. He received orders to rebuild the Mission, and it was protected by a stronger 
garrison: Captain Rivera ordered twelve more soldiers to protect the workmen. The Mission Indians proved 
not to be of much account in fighting the wild Indians. Evidently the influence of Serra had weakened them 
for aggressive purposes. 

The new buildings were dedicated November 12, 1777, but improvements were going on for a series of 
years, and the establishment became, next to San Luis Rey, the leading Mission. Its old palms, germinated 
one hundred and thirty-six years ago, still stand in full vigor, waving their long, graceful branches and leaves 
aloft in the gentle winds from mountain and sea. They stand as silent sentinels, who have beheld very many 
deeds of good and evil, misery and happiness; but they unburden their memories to none. 

The principal building is about one hundred feet in length, from north to south. It stands upon a broad 



THE MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA AND THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

mesa, fifty miles from the mountains, and ten miles from the ocean; its main entrance faces the south line of 
bluffs. Its walls of adobe are four feet thick at the foundation, and its windows and doorways are lined with 
burnt tiles. The architecture is Moorish, which is a blending of the various styles of many tribes of Northern 
Africa, modified by Spanish art. The main entrance was at the southern extremity. 

j^.11 the Missions of California were constructed after the Moorish style in general, but differing often in 
ground plans. The long, arched porch, sheltering the inmates from the noonday sun, and for resort in the cool 
evenings, was everywhere an important feature of the Mission. Fine and well-cultivated gardens and shaded 
walks were indispensable, as were also the orchards with their luxuriant fruits. The quarters of the Indians 
were in some convenient place contiguous to the Mission,' a walled-in space of sufficient area to give comfortable 
homes to all the neophytes that belonged to each Mission; and they were kept scrupulously clean. 

In 1800 the presidio of San Diego had a population of about two hundred, including officers, soldiers, and 
their families. These persons possessed property in horses, cattle, and domestic animals and fowls necessary to 
a life of comfort and plenty, and likewise had ample time for all the rude sports and plays characteristic of their 
times. Indeed, those were halcyon days for the soldier compared with the days in which the ordinary duties 
of his profession called him to other parts of the Spanish empire. And the humble Indian also had his days 
of delight in play and sports, intermixed in liberal profusion with his days of labor under the gentle rule of 
the padres. 

It has been a benevolent practice of the Church for centuries in every land where the cross prevailed to 
give its deserving devotees many days of festival in each year, which are instructive object lessons for their 
good, and promote the cause of the Church. Who would question its wisdom when not indulged to excess? 
In 1828 the Mission itself had in its care fifteen hundred Indians, and owned about twenty-eight thousand 



SAN DIEGO 

head of horses, cattle, and sheep, while it raised annually more than six thousand bushels of wheat, barleys 
and oats. 

All this was soon lost to the padres and converts, and to thousands of others who drew the very bread 
of life from the Missions, by the malevolent policy of the Mexican Government. All that now remains of this 
great and beneficent Mission, after a lapse of seventy years from the time when its wealth and its glory 
departed, is a small school for the education of Indian children, conducted by a loyal representative of the old 
padres, living in poverty, but faithful to duty and reverent toward the past. All else around the ill-fated 
locality is desolation and ruin. 



[37] 



THE MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA AND THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

CHAPTER X 

SAN CARLOS BORREMEO 

ON June 3, 1770, the second Mission according to Serra's plan, San Carlos Borremeo, was founded 
at Monterey. Serra himself was present and celebrated mass, at the conclusion of which Governor 
Portola proclaimed possession of the Bay of Monterey in the names of God and the King of 
Spain. 'The celebration of mass, the burning of incense, the ringing of bells (in this case hung from 
the branches of a tree), the chanting of " Veni Creator," and the blessing of the adjacent waters and 
land, with the formal proclamation of proprietorship in the names of God and the King, constituted the 
usual ceremony incident to the founding of a Mission. 

The chime of bells was ever an important feature with the padres in the founding and life of a 
Mission. These bells were brought from Spain, and were of the best Castile metal and workmanship. 
Their tones called the Indians to assemble at the Mission, and marked the hours for labor. By the 
melodies which they chimed the padres and their Indian followers chanted hymns of praise and songs of 
thanksgiving. Serra often said that he would have their ringing sound heard from the mountains to the 
sea, as it was God's invitation to the souls of heathen men and women to flee to Him and escape the 
wrath to come. These bells were of silver and bronze and other metallic mixtures, to give variety 
to their tones. 

San Carlos was the home Mission of Serra. For seventeen years he labored among the Missions, 
founding, advising, and encouraging; and when he at last returned, worn out with advancing years and care, 

[38] 




Photo, by Hallett-Taylor Co., Coronado 



San Carlos Mission, Monterey 



SAN CARLOS BORREMEO 

he came but to die. His end came peacefully on the twenty-eighth of August, 1784, and he was buried 
with becoming honors, at San Carlos, by the side of his life-long friend, Padre Crespi. His was a fine 
nature and noble soul, and he had devoted his life unselfishly and exhausted his energies for the well-being 
of his fellow-man. 

When the decree of secularization was issued in 1845, San Carlos was already considered an abandoned 
Mission. The priest in charge resided at Monterey, and though a sale of the property was ordered, there 
remained but little of value to dispose of in this manner. From that time until 1882 San Carlos remained 
an untenanted ruin ; but in that year the work of restoration was begun, and two years later the Mission 
was rededicated. Both of the church buildings — the one in Monterey and the one on the site of the 
old Mission in the Carmelo Valley — represent the finest type of Mission architecture. 



[39-] 



THE MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA AND THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

CHAPTER XI 

SAN ANTONIO DE PADUA 

SAN ANTONIO DE PADUA was the third Mission in the order of founding, and was located in 
the beautiful valley of Santa Margarita, now called Los Robles, in the heart of the Santa Lucia 
range, on the fourteenth of July, 177 1 . This range runs from the San Fernando Mountains, twenty 
miles north of Los Angeles, northwest, to the Bay of Monterey. It is a wild and rugged region, far away 
from the ocean, and east of San Luis Obispo. The face of nature in all California can nowhere entertain 
the mind and please the eye of the tourist with a greater variety of scenery, from the most beautiful to the 
grand and sublime, than in the vicinity of this old Mission. The padres well knew how to worship the God 
of Nature in his works. "Los Robles" means the oak trees. There are many valleys and tablelands in 
California covered with stately oaks from fifty to one hundred feet apart, giving vistas for miles in every direction. 
They are called glade lands, and would gladden the hearts of ancient Druids. Such was the valley of the 
Mission of St. Anthony, with a mountain river winding through it, not affected by' the summer drought and 
famous for its hot medicinal springs. This Mission was on the regular line (though inland) from San Diego 
to Monterey, a deflection from the ocean route. Serra with his party left San Carlos and travelled south 
until he discovered the favored location, and then the ceremonies soon settled the question. 

In all the cases of founding Missions, the padres were necessarily dependent on Spain for supplies, except 
in the use of heavy building material, which was in the country around them. These supplies were brought to 
the padres at the few coast ports, mainly San Diego and Monterey, but in later years San Pedro was opened 

[4o] 




Photo, by Putnam Sf Valentine, Los Angele. 



San Antonio de Padua Missioi 



SAN ANTONIO DE PADUA 

to ships. The trained workmen were sent from Spain until the Indians had been made skilled mechanics, and 
it is a remarkable fact that they were very quick in imitation, and soon learned anything that was taught them. 
Many of them excelled in the finest art work, and in the course of time there was no limit to their usefulness. 
The soldier was necessary as a protection, but when the padres had gained influence and their converts became 
numerous, the occupation of the military was rendered useless. The "San Antonio" and the "San Carlos" 
were the chief reliance for supplies for the Missions in the incipiency of the scheme of civilization. 

The Mission never became rich and great, but was fairly prosperous until the decree of secularization. Its 
inland location was a hindrance to its development. It is now in a reasonable state of preservation, being visited 
monthly by a priest from old San Miguel, and occasionally by priests from other Missions. If it never was a 
great Mission, it has compensation in the minds of the imaginative by a tinge of romance hanging about its 
history such as none of the old Missions can surpass. 



[4i] 



THE MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA AND THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

CHAPTER XII 
SAN GABRIEL, ARCANGEL 

THIS Mission was founded September 8, 1771. It is perhaps the most noted of all the Missions at 
this time, in that it comes often under the eye of both citizen and tourist. Located at the western 
entrance of a great and most lovely valley, and in the centre of population and travel in Southern 
California, it commands the attention of every one who would look upon desirable scenes and store the mind 
with happy pictures for the future. The valley is surpassingly beautiful, the lavishness of nature vying with 
the deftness of art in creating a pleasing picture. All who visit the temporal home of San Gabriel, the Archangel, 
muse with wonder upon its past, and go away with hearts enraptured with the romance and spiritual fictions of 
its history. At the College of San Fernando, in the City of Mexico, it was determined to dedicate a leading 
Mission to the Archangel, and for that purpose two prominent priests were instructed especially to visit Serra 
and indicate the purpose, besides assisting him in the task. The Mission was to be worthy of its exalted 
object. The priests arrived, and after an extensive search for the best location, they came at last to the San 
Gabriel River. A Mission was founded, after a change of plan and site, at the present locality. 

This was about the year 1775, neaI "ly a generation before the elaborate and commodious building now standing 
was finished. But the Mission work went on, and some five thousand Indians were taken into the Church 
in this period. The first convert was made about November, 1771. 

In 1806, Father Jose Maria Zalvidea, from San Fernando Mission, a man of great zeal and energy and 
kindly purpose, was installed at the head of the Mission, and under his directing care it entered upon a fine 

[42] 




Photos, by Hallett-Taflor Co , Coronado 



San Gabriel Mission. — Campanile, San Gabriel Mission 



SAN GABRIEL, ARCANGEL 

career of prosperity; its accumulations of wealth made it a Mission of the first class in power and influence. 
This choice spirit is represented by the padre so popular in "Ramona." All these Missions had a prominent 
feature in their architectural design, that of a great square tower at the main entrance of the large building, 
wifeh a dome roof; and in this tower were hung the bells, from three to six, according to the character of the 
Mission in respect to wealth and influence. The great building was in every case rectangular, with porches and 
corridors arranged for convenience. The Moorish plans and style always dominated the construction. 

This Mission is in very good condition, and cared for by the proper custodians, being used for regular 
services of the Church. Its surroundings are well kept, and it is really a picture to remember for a lifetime. 
The old mill about two miles north, in the hills, is a quaint structure as solid as the hills around it, but not 
in use for the original purpose. The pond and dam are as nearly intact as such relics of the past may be. 
The Mission is about four miles from Pasadena and nine from Los Angeles. It can be reached by electric 
roads and the railway from each of these cities, through orange groves, orchards, and vineyards, unrivalled in 
loveliness even in California. In its immediate vicinity eastward is the famous ranch of "Lucky Baldwin," 
Santa Anita, containing sixty thousand acres, in a scenic region as fair as the Garden of Eden. In 1898 there 
lived at the Mission an old priest of Spanish descent, but born at the Mission in 1807. He was educated 
there, entered the Church, and took orders. He was a man of medium height, slender, dark-complexioned, 
with fine forehead and countenance, courteous manner, and characteristic speech, which indicated his ancestry. 
He was learned and intellectual, with a mind stored with the events and legends of Mission days. Often, while 
seated at the table under the old Mission grape-vine, in a garden near the Mission building, then a pleasure 
resort, with a drop of the juice of the vine to warm the currents of life, he would relate story after story of 
the old times; and at the conclusion of each, with pathos in tone and solemnity in look, he would turn his 

[43] 



THE MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA AND THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

face upward and say, "My home is yonder in the skies. I have been waiting so long; when shall I go?" 
The memories of other days, when he had experienced so much of joy and sadness, — for he had seen the glory 
and shame of the brethren of his order, who had all departed, leaving him a solitary wreck behind, — seemed 
to overwhelm him with a sense of the burdens of his life, and he longed for his eternal rest. He had always 
lived at the Mission, and he clung to its fortunes through good and ill report. He occupied the apartments 
of the old padres, living and floating like a waif upon the sea of pious charity that in these latter days restored 
the decayed Mission to a faint semblance of its former condition. There was no bigotry in his nature. His 
love for humanity was boundless, and he prayed, hoped, and believed that all would in some way be finally 
saved. He had been a boyhood companion of Pio Pico, the last Mexican Governor of California. They had 
often played together under the old grape-vine, planted one hundred and thirty-four years ago, which now 
covers a framework sixty feet square. 



[44] 



SAN LUIS OBISPO DE TOLOSA 

CHAPTER XIII 
SAN LUIS OBISPO DE TOLOSA 

IN September, 1772, the great Mission of San Luis Obispo de Tolosa was founded on the coast, about 
one hundred and twenty miles south of the Gulf of Monterey. This port subsequently became important to 
commerce and trade. Padre Serra and Padre Cavalier, with a small party of soldiers such as invariably 
accompanied similar expeditions, started from Monterey in the latter part of August, and located the Mission on 
the first of September. The ceremonies were performed and the building was begun without delay. The Indians, 
trained by the Jesuits, and under the direction of Cavalier, were given the task of construction. A chapel, 
barracks for the five soldiers and corporal, and the house for the padres, were completed in a few months, and 
the natives were attracted to the place. Then followed the real work, and a nucleus of twenty converts was 
formed within a year. The soldier seldom interfered to ward off danger. He was, like the padre, a friend of 
the Indian, and such was his peaceful nature that trouble seldom occurred to call him into action. The native 
food products of the soil and the forest were furnished by the Indians in abundance, with no compensation 
asked except religious instruction and kind treatment at the Missions. An Arcadian atmosphere seemed to 
pervade all these spiritual outposts of the Church in California. The successful hunting of the terrible grizzly 
bear by the Spanish sharpshooters during the previous famine year at Monterey and the country about San Luis 
Obispo, and the feeding of the Indians, doubtless paved the way to kindly feeling between them and the 
Mission people. Harmony was promoted by the manner of ruling the Indians. The padres chose some natural 
leader among them in whom confidence could be reposed, and consigned to him control of a specified number, 

[45] 



THE MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA AND THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

holding him responsible for their good behavior. All offences against the laws and regulations of the Mission were 
reported by the leader, or alcaide, as he was designated, to the padres, who adjusted the penalty therefor. Much 
depended upon the moral force of the alcaide in this personal government, but results were in the main satisfactory. 

In classifying the Mission Indians, it must be remembered that there was found in the hidden places and 
caves of the mountains an Indian race known as the "Digger Indians," whose condition was far below that of 
the generality of tribes that peopled California and came within the range of Mission* influences. The Digger 
was an absolute savage, living upon seeds, herbs, and roots, and flesh that could be obtained with bows and 
arrows; when in extremity he would eat any living or dead thing, even reptiles and insects. He had the most 
debasing habits, was without morality or religion. He was inferior in the scale of being to even the 
Chuckchee of Siberia, or the tree dwarf of Central Africa. The Diggers must not be reckoned among the 
Mission Indians; they never were or could be such; they were never sought for by the padres, but were 
adjudged as beyond the redemptive influences of civilization. 

The infancy of this Mission was disastrous, although it was favorably planted in a naturally rich country, 
amid plenty of open and arable land, well watered, and ever enjoyed genial ocean breezes and temperate climate. 
Three different times were the buildings destroyed by fire, and as often rebuilt with indefatigable energy. In the 
consequent periods of adversity supplies were furnished generously from the common storehouses at San Diego 
and Monterey. These misfortunes aroused the inventive faculties of one of the old padres, whose name is now 
lamentably forgotten. He discovered, after many trials and failures, a method of making roof tiles, which were 
substituted for the former combustible coverings made from tules and willows. This insured safety for the 
future. Then commenced a long period of progress, prosperity, the gathering of wealth, and the winning of 
hundreds of heathen souls for the vineyard of Mother Church. 

[46] 




Photo, by Putnam £f Valentine, Los Angeles 



San Luis Obispo Mission 



SAN LUIS OBISPO DE TOLOSA 

Padre Luis Martinez was the popular hero of that day among the worldly class. He had keen, practical 
sense, genial humor, and was given to generous hospitality that made him many friends. But alas, his rascally 
prudence in providing for his expected "rainy day" brought him into ill-favor with the more spiritual and elect. 
He was sent away from the Mission and from the Indians, whom he reallv loved and for whom he had 
labored. He closed his kindly but somewhat misguided life in Madrid, in some disrepute. But it goes far in 
his favor that around the neighborhood of the old Mission, at this distant day, local tradition still whispers 
words of praise in behalf of the much-loved old padre. 

The Mission overlooks La Canada de los Osos, the Valley of the Bears, — the grizzlies. It was a very 
beautiful and fertile expanse, the mountains bordering closely on the east, and the seacoast several miles away 
to the west. 

Those who would like to know more of the happy scenes which sometimes enlivened the old Mission 
life would do well to read in Helen Hunt Jackson's "Ramona" the description of a procession of domestic 
animals and fowls, organized by Father Martinez. 

The great Mission now lies in ruins, its good work nearly forgotten, and like the fame of "Our Lord the 
Bishop" to perpetuate which in a pious spirit it was erected, it is silently passing into utter oblivion. 



[47] 



THE MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA AND THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

CHAPTER XIV 
SAN FRANCISCO DE ASIS 

SAN FRANCISCO DE ASIS was founded by Padre Palou on the ninth of October, 1776, on the Bay 
of San Francisco. The name was bestowed in honor of the founder of the Franciscan Order. For the 
first year the little band which formed the nucleus of the Mission experienced hard treatment at the hands 
of the Indians, still on the arrival of Serra in 1777 there were presented before him seventeen converts for 
baptism. The first church built was not precisely on the Mission's present site, and the Lake Dolores of that 
day has disappeared as the city of San Francisco has grown up about its shores. In 1782 the corner-stone of 
a new church edifice was laid. 

The Mission was twice visited by the discoverer Vancouver, and he has left a full account of the condition 
in which he found the Mission Indians and the industries in which they had been instructed by the padres. 
The Indians and the Spanish authorities were continually at war with one another, and in the years preceding 
the secularization of San Francisco, in 1835, tnere was a great falling away in the number of neophytes attached 
to the Mission. At the passing of San Francisco into the hands of the Americans, in 1845, there remained 
but a remnant of the old Mission Dolores. 



[48] 




Photos, by Hallett-Taylor Co., Corona Jo 



Musical Wheel, Matracha, and Music Books, San Juan Capistrano Mission. — Dolores, or 

San Francisco de Asis, Mission 



SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO 

CHAPTER XV 
SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO 

SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO was founded November i, 1776, by Serra, assisted by Amirrio. A commission 
of priests was sent from Monterey the year before to find a place for another Mission north of San Diego, 
in pursuance of a modified plan of establishing a line of Missions between the two points, of such distance 
apart as to make the journeys convenient and easy. The original plan was to found but one Mission. This was 
subsequently considered inadequate for the general purposes of colonization and the work of the Church, and 
several Missions had already been founded under the plans as modified. This commission was instructed to 
name the Mission San Juan Capistrano, and they selected the location upon a circle of hills overlooking a 
beautiful valley running to the ocean, sixty-five miles south of Los Angeles. The outbreak of the Indians at 
San Diego occurred at this time, the report of which deferred further action until about a year later. Then 
the work of construction was commenced, and was carried on mostly by the Indians under the direction of the 
padres. But two buildings were begun; however, they were extensive, and the long line of corridors with triple 
archwork, though in ruins, is still the wonder of the engineer and the architect. The walls are massive and 
constructed of stone and mortar, but the earthquake of December 8, 18 12, did much damage. The tower and 
one of the great domes fell in upon the Indian congregation at prayer, crushing about forty under the weight 
of masonry. The same earthquake also wrecked other Missions. 

All this constructive work was the result of training heathen brains and hands to carry out the designs of 
the educated padres. The main building, the church, is in the form of a Roman cross, and its construction 

[49] 



THE MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA AND THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

and decoration place San Juan Capistrano in the forefront as the finest example of Mission-building now 
standing. The carvings and cut-stone work indicate that only masters of their craft were employed in the 
building here. The quadrangle was surrounded by lines of arches which present features not to be found in 
the arches of any other Mission. 

The honor of conferring the name was given to Don Portola, the first Governor, who discovered the 
locality on his trip of observation from San Diego to Monterey in 1770. He was struck with the beauty of 
the region, the fertility of the soil, its contiguity with the sea, and a natural port for the anchorage of ships. 
The place is one of the most remarkable of this productive State. San Juan Capistrano, even after the earthquake 
shock and a century of decay, surpasses many of the Missions. In progress, wealth, and spiritual harvest it 
kept pace in the days of its prosperity with other leading Missions. A chapel still remains, restored from the 
ruins, and services are held there by an itinerant priest. It is one of the favorite resorts of tourists. 



[5o] 




Photo, by Hallett-Taylor Co., Coronado 



Two Views of San Juan Capistrano Missioi 



SANTA CLARA 

CHAPTER XVI 
SANTA CLARA 

SANTA CLARA was founded in the following year, 1777. Padre Tomas de la Pena officiated at the 
ceremonies, seven years before the death of Junipero Serra. This Mission is in Santa Clara County, 
three miles from San Jose, the county seat. The two places are connected by an old boulevard made 
by the padres, and lined on each side by a triple row of trees, planted in the last quarter of the eighteenth 
century, equidistant from each other, on opposite sides of the roadway. They are now of great height, shading 
the entire route. An old legend says that they were intended as a hedge to protect the traveller from the 
wild cattle. The boulevard is one hundred feet wide, and in the days of the padres the surface was kept clean 
and smooth as a promenade. It was called "Alameda," — the pleasant way. The location of this Mission affords 
another example of the excellent judgment and taste of the old padres in the selection of sites for their Mission 
homes. There is no more enchanting valley on earth than this one in Santa Clara County. 

On the sixth of January, Padre Tomas and Lieutenant Moraga, with ten soldiers, selected the site; another 
padre, Jose Murguia, with a party soon came from San Carlos with provisions and supplies for the little colony, 
but Padre Tomas de la Pena with becoming ceremony founded the Mission ; and the buildings were completed 
in due course. Here again the trained heathen's hand and brain were utilized in the construction of this, as 
they were in that of all the Missions, except the first few that were built, before the necessary educational 
process and experience had prepared the Indian for the work. Conversion and baptism went on apace, and the 
padres were made happy by the salvation of many native souls. 

[SO 



THE MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA AND THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

The Mission thrived from the beginning until the Spring of 1779, when excessive rains and floods caused 
by the melting of the heavy snows in the mountains destroyed their buildings and improvements, causing great 
loss. In consequence, other buildings, including a very beautiful church on more elevated ground, were constructed, 
and President Serra, with Padre Pena and his old friend and biographer, Padre Palou, led in the ceremonies of 
dedication. The architect, Father Murguia, died after the completion of the structure, and now lies buried 
under its walls. An earthquake wrecked these buildings in 181 8, but the Mission was restored by erections on 
a more generous scale in 1825 and 1826. -All now lie in moss-grown ruins, which stir mournful memories and 
regretful thoughts in the minds of those who visit them in these latter days. 

Santa Clara Mission had an exciting experience with its Indian converts not realized to any extent by the 
other Missions. Yoscolo, who was educated at the Mission, — a strong character, — was named the alcaide, or 
chief of the Indians controlled by the Mission, but rebelled against the authority of the padres; with a thousand 
Indians, armed with bows and arrows, he attacked the Mission and robbed it of such stores and supplies 
as the rebels cared for and could take with them. Meeting with no serious opposition, they invaded the 
convent where the Indian girls lived, and ignoring the padres' system, which allowed the girls to select for 
themselves if they were inclined to matrimony, they adopted the method of the Romans who seized the 
Sabine women, and captured more than three hundred of them, many of whom may have been willing victims. 
Then, herding three thousand head of cattle and five hundred horses, they fled to the mountains near 
Mariposa, afterwards General John C. Fremont's noted ranch claim. About the same time Stanislaus, another 
Indian leader, deserted from the Mission of San Jose, gathered some three thousand Indians at Mariposa, 
and united his forces with those of Yoscolo, who was chief of the native armies. General Vallijo of the 
Mexican army, and resident commander, with about three hundred soldiers, started after the rebels, but 




Photo, by Putnam &> Valentine, Los Angeles 



Santa Clara Mission 

From an Old Print 



SANTA CLARA 

was outwitted by them, and they escaped into the hidden recesses of the mountains, and were lost to the 
Mexicans. 

Later, Yoscolo, who seems to have been something of a strategist and fighter, and doubtless encouraged 
by his good fortune, made another raid on the Santa Clara Mission, and was again successful in looting and 
carrying away large quantities of stores and valuable goods. He retreated to the Santa Cruz Mountains, near 
Los Gatos, at the mouth of a great cation leading through these mountains. The locality of Los Gatos ("the 
home of the cats") appears to have been the rendezvous and breeding-place of innumerable wild cats, dangerous 
even to the hunter. 

Still later Yoscolo, exalted by his good fortune, and destitute of gratitude toward the Mission fathers for 
their former kindness, made another raid. This last adventure awoke the sleeping and peaceful energies of the 
Mission and the native Californians, so that Juan Prado Mesa, the commander of the Mission, organized a 
force and followed the rebels to the mountains. A battle ensued; with the true tactics of a good soldier, 
Yoscolo formed a square, ordered his Indians to fight lying down, and behind rocks and trees. 'A fierce conflict 
resulted, but bows and arrows could not compete with the flintlock arms of the time. A day's battle, in 
which the Indians evinced great courage and tenacity of purpose, until their rude weapons were exhausted, 
ended in surrender to the Mission forces. Yoscolo was wounded and taken, and according to the usages of 
those times, he and the leading members of his army were at once beheaded; the others were taken to the 
Mission to undergo anew the process of conversion after due punishment for their sins. Yoscolo's head was 
set on the top of a pole planted near the front door of Santa Clara church, to terrorize other Indians inclined 
to evil-doing and rebellion against Mission authority. 

In 1839, in execution of the decree of secularization, issued some years prior to this time, Don Jose Ramon 

[SSI 



THE MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA AND THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

Estrada, the legally constituted commissioner, gave away, or sold to his friends and followers, the rich lands 
and other property of the Mission. The padres voluntarily abandoned their homes in most instances when 
they saw their work destroyed and their opportunity gone. The Indians, vainly protesting, were driven away 
to encounter poverty, suffering, and ultimate extinction. Decay and speedy ruin came to the Mission. This, 
in brief, was the end of all the heroic, sublime, and unselfish labors of the Franciscan fathers to redeem and 
civilize the savage tribes of California. The bitter experience of the Santa Clara Mission with the rebels was 
without doubt due to the fact that the greater portion of the converts were mountain-bred Indians, whose 
nature and habits were more savage, cruel, and warlike than those of tribes living in other localities, more 
favorable by nature to their support. 

The modern Santa Clara has, within sight of the old Mission ruins, a Catholic College, with extensive 
grounds and magnificent buildings, and a faculty famed for its piety and learning. Within its boundary lines 
are many acres adorned with statuary, and planted with trees shading pleasant walks; fountains refreshing the 
air and pleasing 'the eye; flowers everywhere lending their fragrance to the breath of life; vines laden with the 
nectar of the gods; rare plants and beautiful shrubbery; while here and there, standing in stately height and 
native vigor, widely spreading its branches, is the antique oak, whose length of days extends to centuries. This 
picture of beauty, power, and progress represents the Mother Church of our times; the old ruins near by 
represent the same Church more than a hundred years ago; this, the loss of a rude but precious civilization ; 
that, the achievements of a living race with a splendid civilization alike precious and, we trust, far more enduring. 
The Church has made her record in each. 



[54] 



SAN BUENAVENTURA 

CHAPTER XVII 
SAN BUENAVENTURA 

IN 1779 Serra — after many political changes in the officials and plans for California, in which Governqr 
Portola was displaced by Don Teodore de Croix as Governor-General, with residence in Sonora — and his 
good friend, Viceroy Bucarelidead, received orders to found three Missions on the Channel of Santa 
Barbara. Captain Rivera recruited eighty men for that purpose, and to help Serra in locating and building the 
Missions. San Buenaventura was so situated as to form a link in the original chain of Missions which Serra 
ardently desired along the two hundred leagues of coast from Mexico northward, so as to meet the necessities 
of all the Indians living there, who he learned were more readily reclaimed than inland tribes and mountain 
Indians. Governor Portola, on his return from Monterey, reported to Serra very favorably of the Channel 
Indians, as being peaceable, some of them advanced in stonework and quite skilful in woodwork, living in 
decent houses, and expert with canoes. They had informed him, by tracings in the sand, of Vizcaino's visit 
nearly one hundred and seventy-five years before. Serra was greatly interested, but he did not finally get 
permission to build until Governor Neve informed him in February, 1783, that he would help in founding the 
Missions of San Buenaventura and Santa Barbara. He proceeded to the former place, and on the twenty-ninth 
of March, 1783, with imposing ceremony and a great attendance of soldiers and Indians, and Padre Cambon 
from the Philippine Islands, he dedicated San Buenaventura Mission to God and St. Joseph. 

In 1802 this Mission had greater and finer herds, fields of grain, gardens, and orchards than any other. 
Fathers Dumertz and Vicente de Santa Maria were in control, and for many years they made the enterprise a 

[55] 



THE MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA AND THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

success, and the Mission rapidly increased in wealth and importance. They were on the seacoast in the midst 
of a country most prolific in all the products of the soil. They controlled the great Santa Clara Valley; they 
likewise controlled other rich valleys between the Santa Inez Mountains and the ocean, and from Newhall to 
Monticello. 

San Buenaventura Mission has suffered from fire and earthquake, the former during the life of Padre Senan, 
when the buildings were all but completely destroyed; and the latter during the general disturbance in 1812, 
when so many of the Missions experienced serious damage. For a time the padres dared not trust their lives 
beneath the shattered walls, and in the end the church and tower were razed and built anew. These walls were 
so massive that they resisted the cannon shots with hardly a scar, in the battle between Carrillo and Alvarado 
in the Spring of 1838. The beautiful altar in the chapel was the envy of all the Missions. 

The buildings are now in a good state of preservation. The church is finely decorated and painted outside 
and in, but the decorations have so modernized it that the mediaeval character of the structure is lost except in 
the doorways, confessional, baptistery, and bell vaults in the tower. Services are held here regularly as of old. 
The place is a glorious relic, recalled from the past to bless with its memories the present and the future. 



[56] 




Photo, by Putnam & Valentine, Los Angeles 



San Buenaventura Mission 



SANTA BARBARA 

CHAPTER XVIII 
SANTA BARBARA 

IN April, 1782, Governor Neve, with sixty soldiers, arrived at Santa Barbara, thirty miles west by north 
of the new Ventura, so named, and built a presidio for the military protection of the Mission near 
the beach, which here curves to form a small bay. The site selected was not far from the old Indian 
mound, on a high mesa, upwards of a mile from the coast, commanding a view of the Santa Inez Mountains 
on the north, and the ocean in other directions for more than a hundred miles on a clear day. An electric 
railway now extends from the coast to the Mission. Monticello, to the east, is as sunny and romantic 
an incline of foothills as the eye rests upon in a thousand leagues of coast land. April 29, 1782, the 
Governor and soldiers and a great mass of wondering Indians looked on, while Padre Serra celebrated the usual 
mass and preached a sermon ; and then the Governor took possession of the country in the names of God 
and the King, the poor natives not realizing that they had so lost the hunting and fishing grounds possessed 
by them for ages. 

Serra expected the immediate building of the Mission, but the Governor determined that the presidio 
should first be built, to insure protection against the possibility that the aboriginal owners, when their 
wonderment had ceased, would raise the question of title. Serra, sad and grieved at the Governor's decision, 
submitted, called for a priest from San Juan Capistrano, and departed for Monterey. Once again he visited 
the site of the Mission, and even then no steps had been taken toward building. He shed many tears 
and in great earnestness prayed the Lord to "send forthwith laborers to His vineyard." Again he departed 

[57] 



THE MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA AND THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

on foot, — his usual mode of travelling throughout his missionary's life. He was never able to see the seed 
planted by him in Santa Barbara bear blossom and fruitage, for he died on the twenty-eighth of August, 1784, 
yielding up to God a glorious life, which was nevertheless full of bitterness and disappointment. 

Father Palou, the biographer and dearest friend of Serra, was most fittingly appointed President of 
the Missions, but not until December 15, 1786, after Padre Fermin Francisco de Lasuen succeeded Palou, 
was the Mission of Santa Barbara in reality founded. In the ensuing year the buildings were erected, — 
a chapel, a kitchen, a servants' room, a granary, a house for the padres, and a house for unmarried women. 
All walls were three feet thick, of adobe, with heavy pole rafters and thatched roofs. Then many Indians 
were converted and joined the Mission. In 1788 the buildings were tiled, others erected, and three hundred 
and ten Indians were entered upon the register of the Mission. For several years the process of erection 
continued, until 1794, when a large church, in which- were several small chapels of elaborate construction 
and decorative design, completed the Mission buildings. Eight years later a massive stone reservoir of 
sufficient capacity for storing water for the gardens and orchards was built, receiving its supply of water from 
an aqueduct leading from the reservoir to the confluence of the East and West Mission creeks, having their 
sources high upon the Santa Inez Mountains, about two and a half miles distant, and supposed to form what 
the Spaniards at the time called the Pedragosa Creek. Some time later a dam was constructed across the creek 
a mile away, to hold water for operating a mill erected on a hill east of the Mission, and conducted there 
through the aqueduct. The reservoir used for irrigating the gardens and orchards was in front of the Mission 
buildings across the roadway, running past them to the mountains and east to Monticello and west to the old 
Mission of San Miguel, two leagues away, and to various points along the coast westward. The dam and conduits 
— as much of them as is not in ruins — are now used to furnish water for the city. The work served well the 

[58] 




Photo, by Hallett-Taylor Co., Coronado 



Santa Barbara Mission 



SANTA BARBARA 

original purpose, and suggested to the future generations the most advantageous lines upon which to draw their 
waters from the clouds and snows of the mountains. 

The quarters occupied by the Indians were in the rear and west of the main buildings, surrounded by adobe 
and stone walls, enclosing several acres, with comfortable houses suited to their use. All these are now repre- 
sented by lines of decayed rubbish and ruin, the last vestiges of the homes of the poor natives. The principal 
structures are still in good and habitable condition. Regular religious services are held there, and an excellent 
school is maintained for common and advanced instruction, open to all classes without distinction of creed. The 
Mission is no longer a ruin, but restored to a semblance of its ancient usefulness, when hundreds of God's prim- 
itive children clustered around it begging for shelter, food, and blessing. 

Its former prosperity was great, and tempted the avarice of both Spain and Mexico, until the claims became 
so extortionate and burdensome that the padres were often driven to the brink of despair, and the Indians brought 
to poverty. Spain plundered; but Mexico ruined. The wolves of the Government ravaged and devoured until 
the lambs of the Church became extinct. In 1853, by an order from Rome, the Mission was changed into a 
hospice, to become later an apostolic college for novitiates ; but having no ecclesiastical fund for support, the 
college made no progress. In 1885 it was annexed to the Order of the United States, officially centralized 
in the city of St. Louis, and is a beneficiary of the Province of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. 

The city of Santa Barbara is the favorite residence of the old Mexican aristocracy in Southern California. 
The fertile plains and valleys and pastures around it, its even, balmy climate, and its location by the sea made 
it the attractive centre and practically the capital of the State during Mexican occupation succeeding the Mission 
days, though nominally the seat of the Government was at Monterey. 

lS9~] 



THE MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA AND THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

CHAPTER XIX 
LA PURISIMA CONCEPCION 

LA PURISIMA CONCEPCION Mission was designed by Serra as one of the Channel series, but 
was not founded until December 8, 1787, three years after his death; and it was built not upon 
the coast but upon the Santa Inez River, north and beyond the mountains. The river is about one 
hundred miles long, rising in the mountains to the eastward, — a sort of nucleus, or hub of mountains at 
Newhall, into which run the Tehatchipe Range from the Sierra Nevada, the San Gabriel Range from the 
eastward, the San Fernando Range from the south, the Cuyhengo Range from the southeast, the Santa 
Inez Range from the west, and the Santa Lucia Range from the northwest, near Monterey. This mountain 
centre is the wildest and most rugged portion of the State outside of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. It 
seems to be the breeding-place of all the lesser ranges. The Santa Inez Valley, through which runs the river, 
is like an immensely wide and most hideously savage canon until it approaches Las Berros, on the river, 
the site of the Mission, a much wider part of the valley and a more open country. Many canons and 
smaller valleys enter the Santa Inez along its route from the eastern end to its mouth, where the valley 
and river reach the ocean. Along the western half of the Santa Inez Valley a wide stretch of open country 
unfolds to view, embracing many thousands of acres, consisting of valley, flat, rolling, and hill lands, 
exceedingly fertile, adapted to cultivation and pasturage, and extending to San Luis Obispo and beyond. 
Such, approximately, is the southwestern part of California available to the Missions for resources and 
Indian converts; but it is impossible to define clearly and accurately the trend of the ranges and localities of 

[60] 




Photo, by Putnam £f Valentine, Los Angeles 



La Purisima Concepcion Mission 



LA PURISIMA CONCEPCION 

the intervening lands without the aid of the contour map. In this region near the Santa Inez, are the Lompoc 
Colony and lands, one of the finest and most productive portions of the State. 

The first buildings erected were both crude and small, but in 1802 more extensive ones of adobe, tile-roofed, 
were completed and dedicated. The earthquake of 18 12 rent and tore the Mission and Indian houses to pieces, 
and to this were added the destructive forces of a great flood from the river, which completed the ruin. Padre 
Mariano Payeras was the supervising priest and a man of great energy; with the abiding faith of his Order in 
the results of indomitable labor, he entered on the work of reconstruction. He soon had provided warehouses 
for grain, which was in the process of harvesting when the disaster occurred, enclosures for several thousand head 
of cattle and sheep and horses, and dwellings for his Indians, numbering fifteen hundred or more. He also 
finished a stone structure, which was dedicated five years later, in 18 17, and used as a chapel, as a padres' house, 
and for other Mission purposes. It was in style, dimensions, and decoration the most modest of the Mission 
chapels in California. La Purisima prospered in amassing wealth and in making converts, and its location made 
it indispensable to the line of Missions, as they were projected and afterwards established. Doubtless its mis- 
fortunes from natural causes had much to do in subordinating its fortunes to those of the other Missions, while 
in time it became, like the others, a victim to the act of confiscation. In 1844 Governor Pio Pico was ordered 
by the home Government to restore the lands to the Indians, whose number was at that time reduced to about 
one hundred. But, without faith or hope in the future, the Indians declined the benefit of this belated act 
of conscience, and the lands were sold and rented. The United States Commissioners in 1856 restored the Mission 
buildings to the Church. They are now partially reconstructed and used for Mission purposes. 

The old Mission is reached from the south by the San Marco and the Goleta Passes through the Santa 
Inez Mountains, the one being ten and the other forty miles west of Santa Barbara. 

[61] 



THE MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA AND THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

CHAPTER XX 
SANTA CRUZ 

SANTA CRUZ, on the Bay of Monterey, was inspired and planned by President Lasuen in his home in 
the San Francisco Mission. It was founded in the Autumn of 1791, with the .accustomed ceremony of 
a mass, chanting by neophytes from another Mission, and the raising of a cross on the spot over which 
the altar was designed to rest. Chief Sugert and a large following of his tribe attended, themselves representing 
the very people from which the good padres planned to recruit the company of their converts. The church 
was dedicated in May, 1794, in the presence of these same Indians, who on this occasion came as devotees. 

The Mission reached its zenith of influence five years after its founding, although it continued to acquire 
property in cattle and herds. Settlers encroached upon the lands of the Mission, and the padres retaliated 
upon the authorities who had permitted such a condition, until, eventually, in the Bouchard rising in 18 18, 
the Mission was robbed of every removable effect. A padre was murdered here in 18 12 by neophytes who 
pleaded having been most cruelly punished, but their claims were never established. 

In 1835 Ig na cio del Valle was commissioned to dispose of the property under the act of confiscation. The 
personal property inventoried fifty thousand dollars, of which it was agreed that ten thousand dollars should be 
given to the Indians. It is said that this amount was actually divided among them; but it is usually added, 
ironically, that the only apparent evidence of the division was to be found in their wretched condition. 

The tower fell in 1840, eleven years later the walls were wrecked, and since then the Mission has dropped 
into utter obscurity, and none so poor to do it reverence. 

[62] 



LA SOLEDAD 

CHAPTER XXI 
LA SOLEDAD 

LA SOLEDAD, Our Lady of Solitude, was founded on the ninth of October, 1791, midway between the 
Missions of San Antonio de Padua and Santa Clara. The site was located in a region of arid plains, 
which depended largely upon irrigation to make them fruitful. Padre Lasuen, who chose the site 
and later instituted the Mission, had abundant confidence in the possibilities of the region to produce good 
pasturage and crops when the padres and their Indian neophytes should have introduced a system of irrigation 
to supplement the insufficient rainfall. 

On the day when the Mission was founded a company of perhaps twelve earnest men gathered about a 
cross and altar, set upon the bare and deserted plain, — the sole human creatures in the vast barren waste which 
stretched away in all directions league upon league. Their faith must indeed have been large, that they chose 
this drear spot as the point at which to create a centre of usefulness and about which to gather the wretched 
and impoverished savages, who knew no jov, no hope, no comfort, — as civilized man knows such. 

At once the work of erecting adobe buildings was begun, and the padres proved indefatigable in their 
efforts to increase the holdings upon which the temporal welfare of the Mission depended. They found the 
pasturage for cattle and sheep fairly good, and well-nigh limitless in extent. Either the soil was not so good, or 
they were unable to introduce sufficient water for irrigating, for their crops seem not to have flourished as did 
those of other Missions. Surely there is no question concerning the faithful, persistent work of the padres and 
their Indian converts, who gathered about the Mission and threw in their destinies with it. Of these the 

[63] 



THE MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA AND THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

number steadily grew larger, in spite of an epidemic which made great ravages among them. As years went 
on the flocks and herds increased, until La Soledad reached a place among the prosperous Missions, proving 
the padres most excellent men of business. From its zenith of wealth and influence, about the year 1820, the 
Mission fell into decline, owing to the political chicanery which succeeded the just and gentle rule of the 
padres. When the decree of secularization took effect, in 1835, litt^ or no property remained, and La Soledad 
Mission passed into the hands of the Soberanes family. 

Padre Sarria, who had made his home at La Soledad during the years of its decline, — and his own as well, 
for he had quitted the high place he formerly held and had grown aged and feeble, — fell dead before the 
altar while upon his knees in prayer. Truly, the Mission house of Our Lady of Solitude had become desolate! 

The ruins of La Soledad Mission lie about four miles from the town of that name. The roof of the 
church has fallen in, and but a solitary arch remains of the once fine colonnade. Little remains but heaps of 
debris to tell its story to the visitor; but ruins have ever been eloquent to speak to the imagination of the 
active life which once stirred within walls now enclosing naught but empty solitude. 



[64] 




Photo, by Putnam fif Valentine, Los Angeles 



Ruins of La Soledad Mission 



SAN JOSE 

CHAPTER XXII 

SAN JOSE 

SAN JOSE Mission was dedicated to St. Joseph, the spouse of the Holy Virgin, June 11, 1797, by 
direct order from the Apostolic College at San Fernando. Padre. Lasuen founded it, and appointed 
Padres Isadore Barcenilla and Augustine Morino as priests in control of the Mission. It was the 
sister to Santa Clara, and situated three miles away, on the foothills of the Coast Range, where the beautiful 
city of San Jose is now located, and fifty miles south of San Francisco. The region is noted for its immense 
stretch of fertile and well-watered lands, upon which the flocks and herds could graze and wander in native 
pastures without limit, summer and winter. These were the resources from which the Missions prospered and 
amassed their wealth. Here Nature, again, with but little care, yielded bountifully her products to minister to 
the comfort and luxury of man. This Mission at an early day led many others in riches and in the influence 
these bestowed upon it. Hunting in the mountains and trapping on the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers 
were sources of considerable wealth. The great mountains around the open country tempered the climate and 
promoted health and vigor, while they stirred the soul with their awe-inspiring scenery. Stanislaus, the renegade 
leader, like Yoscolo of the Santa Clara Mission, was educated here. But he too, like his ingrate associate, 
turned on the hands that nurtured him, and in 1825, with a band of about one hundred Indians, raided the 
ranches and drove away hundreds of cattle and horses. The animals were some days afterwards recovered as a 
result of a battle between the robbers and a small force of twenty men led by Guillermo Castro, who 
subsequently became a Mexican General, and commanded the Mexican army against General John C. Fremont 

[65] 



THE MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA AND THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

in his famous bear campaign for the conquest of that part of California. It was a species of guerilla warfare 
in which Castro excelled by reason of his ability to hide in the mountain recesses beyond the reach of Fremont, 
who at last turned away to pursue his campaign more effectively in Southern California. 

San Jose Mission was originally a small wooden erection, roofed with mats made by the Indians, of strands 
of woven grasses stitched together; but about the year 1800 a new building was constructed. These ruins, 
although the Mission was simple and modest, and in no sense comparable with some others in size, cost, 
number, or magnificence of structure, have received more attention and been described in more glowing colors 
by writers and visitors than many another more extensive Mission. 

General Vallejo, the Comisionado, took possession of the Mission property in 1834, and found ten thousand 
head of cattle, four thousand horses, and twelve thousand sheep; there were also about two thousand converted 
Indians, — a most remarkable showing for a small Mission in thirty-seven years of existence. 



[66] 




Photo, by Putnam & Valentine, Los Angeles 



San Juan Bautista Mission 



SAN JUAN, BAUT1STA 

CHAPTER XXIII 
SAN JUAN, BAUTISTA 

SAN JUAN, Bautista, was founded in June, 1797. Its church, now in ruins, was built in 1800. Its site 
is at San Benito, in a beautiful locality in that county, and on the road from Castroville to Gilroy. 
President Lasuen and Padre Martianena performed the usual ceremony of dedication. The original buildings 
were of wood, with pole roofs; but in the beginning of the next century erections of adobe, stone, and mortar, 
with massive walls and tile roofs, were substituted. The charming feature of this Mission was its numerous bells, 
with their sweetness and variety of tone, from treble of light weight to bass of several thousand pounds. Some 
old master, skilled in the art of music and the manufacture of bells, had so contrived the relation and 
intermingling of tones that they resulted in composing a chime of incomparable sweetness. The bells were cast 
in Peru, — nine of them in the series. Subsequently some of the bells were recast, but the secret of the 
relation of metals, temper, and tones was lost, and the charm was broken. The fame of these bells was greater 
than that of the Mission. The bells have disappeared, and the ruins only remain. 



[67] 



THE MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA AND THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

CHAPTER XXIV 
SAN MIGUEL 

NEARLY forty leagues north of Santa Barbara the Mission of San Miguel was founded on the 
twenty-fifth of July, 1797, in honor of the "Prince of the Heavenly Militia." The ceremonies were 
performed by President Lasuen and Padre Sitjar, and baptism was administered to fifteen children at 
the time. The Indians did not respond generally to the invitations of the padres; so Padre Martin went to 
the Chief Guchapa and begged him to send his Indians to the Mission, but met prompt refusal. Thereupon 
Commander de la Guerra sent a file of his soldiers and took the old chief prisoner. Then he came to terms, 
and promised to send his people, leaving his son as a hostage. But this method of forced conversion did not 
succeed well : the Mission made but little progress in its spiritual labors, and in truth not much in the 
acquisition of wealth. The country available was good, and extensive for sheep-pasturing, and a proper attention 
to this industry would have proven a sure road to riches. Yet the padres gave too much labor to raising 
grapes and making wine, and their section and climate were not well adapted to this fruit and this industry. 
In consequence, they were unable to pay their annual tribute to Mexico. They owned, in time, large flocks 
of sheep, but never pushed the industries of wool-raising and weaving, which would have produced their 
fortunes. San Miguel played a humble part in Mission life, but its reputation was spotless. 



[68] 




Photo, by Putnam & Valentine, Los Angeles 



San Miguel Mission 



SAN FERNANDO, REY DE ESPAGNA 

CHAPTER XXV 
SAN FERNANDO, RET DE ESPAGNA 

SAN FERNANDO was founded September 8, 1797. President Lasuen was in harmony with the plans 
of Serra to establish a series of Missions from the Mexican border to Monterey, and he dedicated this 
Mission to the King of Spain. The ruins of the adobe building now seen date back to 1806, when the 
erection thereof was completed. They stand in a valley as fertile and sunny as any in the State, a valley that 
is very great in extent and susceptible to cultivation throughout. Enclosed mainly by the San Fernando and 
Cuvhengo Ranges, it opens eastward through La Canada Pass to Pasadena and the San Gabriel Valley, and 
southward through Glendale Valley to Los Angeles. As a grain and fruit region it compares favorably with the 
other great valleys in the State. Thus it may be seen that the old Mission had exhaustless natural resources 
in soil, climate, and expansive lands to draw on in the development of its object, and for raising supplies for 
the padres and the native converts. The buildings, like many others, were badly shaken or destroyed by the 
earthquake of 18 12. The Mission was restored; and, as in some others of the first class, a magnificent 
corridor was attached like a wing to the principal building, which enclosed the chapel. The corridor was arched, 
and under its shade the padres were protected from the sun; here, too, they spent the cool evening hours 
in repose. The courtyard was refreshed by running water and a fine stone fountain. Shade trees of every 
description, indigenous to the soil and climate, and such as could be transplanted, or raised from imported seed, 
everywhere surrounded and interspersed the Mission grounds. Flowers indescribable in variety and perfume 
allured the vision and gave exquisite pleasure to the senses. Fruits of every kind were plentiful as the native 

[69] 



THE MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA AND THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

grasses. Indeed, this was one of the great Missions in all that nature and art could contribute to its growth 
and maturity. Founded in honor of a king who had been canonized by the pope, it could not be permitted 
to degenerate into inferiority and obscurity. It flourished and gathered property in flocks, herds, grain, wine, 
money, and other effects, until, in 1825, it was estimated to rank almost without a rival in wealth among its 
sister Missions. Its treasury held from one hundred and fifty to two hundred thousand dollars in cash and 
assets. The site of the Mission commands a view of nearly the entire valley, and to the ocean, and the islands 
from forty to eighty miles away. 

In 1846 the Mission was sold by Governor Pio Pico to Don Eulogio Celis for about twenty thousand dollars, 
and the sale was confirmed ultimately by the United States Commissioners, closing out the Mission forever. 
Its lands are now owned by many different people, and the entire valley is modernized by all the improvements 
of a higher civilization. Its location is about fifteen miles north of Los Angeles, and near the mountains. 
There is an old tradition that the padres found gold in these mountains; their mines are sometimes pointed 
01ft, but no one cares to work them. Yet it is no doubt true that the Mexicans discovered gold here in 
considerable quantities before it was revealed in Sutter's Creek in 1848. However authentic the traditions, may 
be, the pursuit of gold in these localities has long since been abandoned. 



[7o] 




Photo, by Tutnam Gf Valentine, Los Angeles 



San Fernando Mission 



SAN LUIS, REY DE FRANCIA 

CHAPTER XXVI 
SAN LUIS, RET DE FRANCIA 

SAN LUIS, Rey de Francia, was founded June 13, 1798. This was the greatest, richest, and grandest of 
the old Missions, located in a most picturesque section, upon a beautiful site, not far from the ocean, 
at Oceanside, — now a little gem of a modern city. In the day of its glory and wealth it was the pride 
of all the Missions. Father Peyri during his long service of more than thirty 'years made it his home. The 
Mission possessed more than two hundred thousand acres, and as much more became subject to its control as 
its energies expanded. It owned and pastured upon its lands an annual average of twenty thousand head of 
cattle, and nearly as many sheep, with three thousand Indians to perform the various kinds of work needful 
to a self-supporting colony. All Missions once well started were expected to produce from their lands and 
industries all the comforts and as many of the luxuries as such primitive conditions of life made possible. In these 
respects all were successful. No Mission lived upon the charity of another, though their hospitality was 
proverbial. The annual crops of wheat, oats, barley and corn, potatoes, beans, and other products of the soil, 
were very many thousand bushels. In the year 1834, the Mission had thirty-five hundred Indians to support, 
and, as an old record shows, more than twenty-five thousand head of cattle, ten thousand horses, and ninety 
thousand sheep. It raised and harvested from its arable lands annually, in the zenith of its prosperity, more 
than sixty thousand bushels of grain, and two hundred and fifty barrels of wine from its vineyards. 

The grand and imposing structure was the church, one hundred and sixty feet long, fifty feet wide, and 
sixty feet in height, with walls four to five feet thick. The great tower in front had three stories, the upper 

[7i] 



THE MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA AND THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

two each containing four bells in a square room formed by the walls of the tower, where archways were cut in 
all sides; and a bell, hung back of these openings and vibrating in the air, could be heard for many miles. 
These bells performed all kinds of service in Mission work and worship, and were indispensable to the padres. 
The ornaments of the church in gold and silver were many and beautiful. In the chancel and behind the altar 
stood the cross, and upon it the image of Christ, of life size, modelled in wood, exquisitely painted and 
fashioned, to make the resemblance to life nearly perfect. The altar was approached by steps made to resemble 
red granite. An old pulpit of wood, curiously made, said to have been used in a church in Constantinople 
during the Middle Ages, and occupied at different times by several of the most learned and pious of the 
priesthood that have since been canonized by the popes, hung upon the wall to the right of the altar, facing 
the Indians. It was entered by a stairway from the space at the end of the altar. It was revered as a most 
precious relic, and richly trimmed in gold. The walls and ceiling of the structure were adorned with many and 
various images, mottoes, and precepts illustrating the creed, ceremonies, and history of the Church. 

On one side of the structure extended a corridor of two hundred and fifty arches. This alone certainly 
indicates the vast space covered by the buildings. In the rear of the church was a great square containing 
several acres, enclosed by a row of buildings on each side. The front and rear lines were constructed in the 
form of corridors with superb arches. The ground enclosed was used as one of the gardens of the Mission, 
and entered from the corridors, a favorite resort of the padres. The air therein was moistened by the waters 
of an immense stone fountain in the centre, — water brought through a conduit from the mountains. 

San Luis Rey was known as "the kingly Mission." Its boundless possessions of land, great number of 
converts, vast riches in almost every kind of personal property, great influence in the councils of the Church, 
and perhaps its wonderful success in the management of its resources, spiritually and otherwise, gave it a 

[72] 




Photo, by Halktt-Taylor Co., Coronado 



San Luis Rey Mission 



SAN LUIS, REY DE FRANCIA 

celebrity surpassing that of all other Missions. When the order of" secularization was about to be carried into 
effect, and notice was sent to Padre Peyri, he determined at once to leave his home of thirty years, with all its 
loved and bitter memories. Dreading the parting with his Indians, who had become to him as dear as children, 
he started away in the night for San Diego, forty-five miles distant, unknown to them, and hoped thus to 
escape the agony of separation. The secret of his flight was soon known, and several hundred of them rushed 
to their horses and hastened in pursuit. They reached the Bay of San Diego in time to see Father Peyri on 
board the ship, then weighing anchor for Spain. From the deck he blessed them, and bade them farewell in 
tears and lamentations. Some of them swam to the ship, and were taken on board; they went to Rome, never 
to return again. None but Serra in all this noble band endeared himself to the poor Indian like Peyri. 

The process of restoration of the Mission began in 1892. Father O'Keefe, the popular priest who long 
presided over the reviving fortunes of Santa Barbara Mission, and was so kindly known to tourists, became the 
manager at San Luis Rey in the period of reconstruction. The work advanced so rapidly that on the twelfth 
of May, 1894, the Mission was again dedicated, and title thereto delivered to the Franciscan Order. It is 
stated that some old Indian women were there who had been present at the dedication ceremonies nearly one 
hundred years before. The old Moorish dome over the chancel in the church has been restored, and such other 
buildings added as would serve the new purpose of the Mission, all resembling as nearly as possible the original 
designs in the arrangement of grounds and erections. The brown mountains, the lovely valley, and the pure 
snow waters of the river flowing around the elevation upon which the white-domed and tile-roofed homes of 
the old padres in far-off days rested, will remain in their beauty and grandeur until the end of time, but will 
not outlive the pious memories and pathetic fate of San Luis, which was destroyed while nourishing a 
civilization that promised so much to pagan races. 

[73] 



THE MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA AND THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

CHAPTER XXVII 
SAN JOSE DE GUADALVPE 

SAN JOSE DE GUADALUPE Mission was founded June n, 1797. It was situated about twenty miles 
northeast of what is now the city of San Jose, in the foothills. The first building was of wood, 
with a thatched roof; the adobe church was not completed and dedicated until 1809. The number of 
converts promised success from the first, and steadily increased until, in 1824, the population settled about the 
Mission amounted to nearly two thousand souls. In 1805 a padre and a small escort of soldiers and Indians 
were attacked, one soldier being killed. This was the first overt act of hostility on the part of the Indians, 
and swift retaliation was meted out to the offenders. Although situated in a territory continually embroiled in 
petty warfare between the Indians and settlers, San Jose enjoyed great prosperity. Little remains of the old 
structures, but many fine old olive-trees of the padres' planting still yield a considerable income to local 
institutions belonging to the Church. 



[74] 




Photo, by Futnam & Valentine, Los Angeles 



Santa Inez Mission 



I 



SANTA INEZ 

CHAPTER XXVIII 
SANTA INEZ 

THE Santa Inez Mission was not comprehended in the original plan of the padres, but nearly thirty 
years after the founding of the first three Missions, a colony of several families that had years before 
located on lands in the valley of the Santa Inez, about forty miles northwest of Santa Barbara, and 
beyond the mountains, appealed to the President of the Missions for the founding of one in their vicinity. 
They argued that they, being baptized families, were entitled to the rites of divine worship without undergoing 
the hardship and inconvenience of frequent trips to Santa Barbara, or La Purisima, each of which was many 
miles away from them. The petition was granted, and on September 17, 1804, the new Mission of Santa 
Inez was founded in that valley, and dedicated to St. Agnes. One hundred and fifty persons were entered on 
the records, and a church was immediately started. The new colony flourished, but the earthquake of 1812 so 
shattered the walls of their buildings that they had to be rebuilt. The Mission prospered in flocks and herds 
for about fifteen years, when it appeared by one record that it had accumulated twenty-five thousand cattle, 
fifteen thousand sheep, and twenty-five hundred horses, and a great deal of other personal property, the flocks 
and herds and lands at all times constituting the basis of its wealth. The Indians in 1824 became discontented 
and troublesome, and many of them left the Mission. 

The buildings were burned and otherwise destroyed to a great extent and never fully restored. Many 
Indians left and never returned. The work of conversion languished, but the riches of the Mission grew in 
magnitude until the day of secularization. 

[75] 



THE MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA AND THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

CHAPTER XXIX 

SAN RAFAEL, ARC ANGEL 

SAN RAFAEL, founded December 17, 18 17, by Father Luis Taboada, was intended to be but a 
temporary abiding-place, on the north side of the bay, in a nook sheltered from the rough ocean winds 
by the mountains around it. At the time a great pestilence prevailed among the Indian converts at 
Yerba Buena, — the old Spanish name for San Francisco, — and the sick were removed to San Rafael to be 
refreshed by its balmy breezes. It was designed to be a part — an asistencia — of San Francisco Mission, or 
the Mission Dolores, across the bay. Although no written evidence remains that it ever was raised to the 
status of a Mission, it was so occupied for seventeen years, and then became a parish of the first class. 
General John C. Fremont spent a week here in 1846. The buildings were never pretentious, and have ill 
withstood neglect and the passage of years. Only a part of the pear orchard planted by the padres remains of 
the old Mission property. The former site of San Rafael is now a beautiful city, the home of many persons 
who are engaged in business across the bay. 



[76] 



CHAPELS 

CHAPTER XXX 
CHAPELS 

OUTLYING among the Missions, stations among the far-distant ones, or on the frontiers, were chapels, 
or asistencias, such as were not organized as Missions. The principal ones were as follows: 

San Antonio de Pala was an offshoot of San Luis Rey, built in 1 8 1 6 by Father Peyri as a chapel 
for the Indians who lived in the mountains twenty miles away. Bells were hung in the tower to call them to 
worship. It had none of the buildings necessary to a Mission, nor ever made pretensions to the name. It 
remains there still, kept in habitable condition for service by a few families of natives living in a neighboring 
village. Old paintings are hanging on the walls, and there is an image of Antonio Pala, the soldier-priest, its 
patron saint; also a statue in olivewood, made in Spain, of St. Louis, the French king of pious fame and 
memory in earlier centuries. There are still left old copper, brass, iron, and wood mementos of the past, some 
of which do not indicate their use, but are precious to the Indian worshippers. The building is long, narrow, 
and dark within, but serves for the purpose of divine worship. Now, after the lapse of a hundred years, the 
few descendants of the old Mission converts gather there on Sundays and fete days to do reverence and to 
rehearse the joys and glories that are gone. 

San Francisco Solano, dedicated to the patron saint of the Indies, April 4, 1814, was from its birth under 
the shadow of those events which doomed all the Missions. Its life was blameless, and not without beneficent 
results. Its ruins are scarcely traceable, and only dim memory holds record of its former existence. 

San Miguel Chapel, some six miles from Santa Barbara, was built in 1803. San Miguelito Chapel, built 

[77] 



THE MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA AND THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

in 1809, was one of several asistencias appertaining to San Luis Obispo. Santa Isabel, forty miles from San Diego, 
was built in 1822. At the Indian village of Mesa Grande is a chapel dedicated to Santo Domingo. 

Los Angeles Chapel was never a Mission, but a chapel designed for the veteran soldiers of the King as a 
place of worship. The first movement in their behalf was made in 1 811, and in August, 18 14, the corner-stone 
was laid and blessed. Years passed, nothing occurring but agitation from time to time. At last a chapel was 
built, and dedicated on the eighth of December, 1822. Los Angeles was then a small village of less than one 
thousand inhabitants. 

San Bernardino, or Politana, Chapel was established by the padres from San Gabriel Mission as a stopping- 
place and supply station for travellers overland across the desert. In 18 10 the buildings and cultivated lands 
were destroyed and laid waste by fanatical Indians, incited to revolt by the medicine men of a mountain tribe 
Ten years later a new site, eight miles from the old, was chosen, and new buildings were erected. For eleven years 
this establishment prospered, when the fate which had befallen its predecessor swept it alike to ruin. It was 
rebuilt directly and in such a manner and with walls of such strength that it became the proud boast of its 
constructors that it would never again need to fear an attack, ever so fierce, from its Indian foes. But a force 
of unheard-of strength for that day and country came against it in 1834, and destroyed the buildings and put 
their defenders to flight. No further attempt has ever been made to rebuild or rehabilitate the old Chapel, and 
even the ruins are fast disappearing. 

One more of these old Chapels was built, in the Santa Margarita Valley, in San Luis Obispo County. 
The Sierra Santa Lucia encircles the valley, which presents a rural landscape lovely beyond comparison." This 
chapel probably consisted of several buildings, erected solely for the Indians who lived far from the Mission of 
that region. 

[78] 




Photo, by Putnam & Valentine, Los Angeles 



Los Angeles Chapel, from the Plaza 



THE MISSIONS OF LOWER CALIFORNIA 

CHAPTER XXXI 
THE MISSIONS OF LOWER CALIFORNIA 

LOWER California was the field of the greatest and most patient efforts of the Jesuit missionaries for 
nearly a century. Their work was very systematic, and more successful than that of other Missions in 
the Southwest, except in some portions of central Mexico, where greater enlightenment prevailed among 
the natives. 

The country is a waste of mountains, sand plains, canons, gulches, valleys, and broken surfaces, with but 
few, small, and scanty streams, and rivers oftentimes waterless. One hundred degrees is a common temperature 
in summer, and much of the time it is higher. 

The tribes that peopled this hideous wilderness were as degraded as the reptile-eaters among the wilds of 
the Amazon. Their religion was a crude necromancy, and they had no rational ideas of a Supreme Being. 

In 1683 an expedition consisting of one hundred settlers of the poorer classes, led by three Jesuit priests, 
sailed for the peninsula. They found fresh water — a rarity — and a safe harbor. The natives, who looked like 
starved wolves, soon became hostile, and collisions occurred in which several were killed. The colonists deserted 
the fort and made another settlement sixty miles up the gulf. The natives here gathered daily for instruction, 
and some five hundred desired to be Christians. But the exploring parties which went into the outer districts 
found desolation everywhere, and the colony was abandoned. Thus the heroic and loyal Jesuits met their first 
defeat on the desert peninsula. 

About 1688, Spain succeeded in effecting the colonization of the peninsula. Mission work was carried on 

[79] 



THE MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA AND THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

for nearly a hundred years, under the control of the Jesuits, or until their removal by Charles III, in 1767. 
Mission work continued five years under the Franciscans, but its energies were steadily ebbing away. Thereafter, 
under the authority of the Dominicans in a brief and troublous period, it ceased to exist. 

Under the Jesuits the Missions were a triumph against nature. Father Kuehn was the master spirit that 
accomplished the result. He was daring to the utmost of his convictions. In zeal, ability, and practical energy 
he was perhaps without a peer among the missionaries. He wandered alone, or with a few docile Indians, in 
the wilds of northern Mexico, and mapped out regions never before trodden by the foot of the white man, and that 
with an accuracy not questioned in modern geography. He only knew that souls there were perishing for the 
bread of life. To save them was his inspiring motive. 

During three generations many Missions were planted, and they prospered beyond measure; then a spirit 
of unrest came, and culminated in a general war against civilization. The Apaches were raiding everywhere; 
many Missions were destroyed, and the reclaiming influences of a century were obliterated. Thereafter Father 
Salvatierra, who was experienced by previous mission work, promptly assumed the responsibility of carrying on 
the work of the Missions in the peninsula. 

Father Kuehn, who had been removed to the opposite side of the gulf, labored unceasingly, became the 
supreme leader among white men and Indians, translated languages of several tribes, founded villages and 
churches, and within a few years had converted more than fifty thousand savages and reduced them to orderly 
life. Even the fierce Apaches esteemed him as their good and trusted friend. 

All this time Salvatierra was fruitlessly working to obtain authority and help for his Mission movement. 
The Superiors were against it; the Government detested it. At last the General of the Order directed the 
Provincial in Mexico to allow Salvatierra to found the Missions, and after a long and tedious struggle, the 

[80] 




Photo, by Putnam £jf Valentine, Los Angeles 



The Pelfry, Pala Chapel 



THE MISSIONS OF LOWER CALIFORNIA 

Father raised donations from pious individuals, and converted them into a fund for the support of the Missions. 
This was called the Pious Fund of California, a fund that has been subject to many vicissitudes during two 
hundred years. It had increased in 1842 to about $ 1,700,000, when it was confiscated for the Mexican Government. 
Later, when the terms of peace between Mexico and the United States were being adjusted, the former held 
that the United States had become liable for the fund, and should account for it to the Catholic Church of 
California. A few years ago the question of liability was submitted to the Hague Tribunal, which decided 
that payment must be made by the Government of Mexico, and such payment to the Church was accordingly 
made. 

Salvatierra had builded better than he knew with the Pious Fund. The Viceroy and council were prevailed 
upon to issue the license, and at last the heathen of the peninsula were to know the white man's God. 

In 1697 Salvatierra, with another priest, Father Piccolo, selected a Mission site on a small bay at Carmen, 
near an island of that name. There was a spring of fresh water here, and quite a growth of vegetation 
indigenous to the locality. Salvatierra gave his settlement the name of Loretto, in honor of Our Lady of 
Loretto, whose special blessing he had invoked to aid him in his mission work. By irrigation from the spring 
he could have a little garden and a fruit orchard. His colony consisted of himself, Piccolo, six men, and three 
Mission Indians, each of a different race or tribe. Salvatierra supervised everything and joined in all labors 
but bearing arms for defence. 

A big tent was used as a chapel, where Salvatierra said mass. The natives made no demonstrations of 
friendship or hostility. Salvatierra tried to talk with the Indians, explaining his own language and acquiring 
theirs. They often made sport of him, which he bore with patience. When the conversation was closed, he 
would feed them with boiled corn. This was ever the substantial food of the Missions and always in use, like 

[81] . 



THE MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA AND THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

our wheat bread, but was grown on lands across the gulf. The natives, after the meal was over, would steal 
whatever they could reach, and escape with it. Several hundred natives who attacked the settlement 
were driven off; and a vessel arrived a few days afterwards with more men and a supply of provisions. 
This increased the colony to twenty-five men. Some pious citizen gave the Mission a small schooner for 
permanent use. 

The most serious obstacle to prosperous Mission labor was the nature and poverty of this wild country. 
Practically, the support of these Missions came from the Mexican provinces east of the gulf. At all times the 
supplies were scanty, and when the Pious Fund was not sufficient to meet emergencies, dependence was solely 
upon donations. Yet the Fund accumulated in the course of years ; it was so carefully managed by the Jesuit 
commission that, with occasional gifts, it supplied Palou, the Franciscan, to the extent of fifteen thousand dollars 
yearly. But the Missions were crippled for means of support and extension. 

The daily experience at Loretto was somewhat monotonous. The Indians came there to be taught. 
Piccolo took care of the children for instruction within the walls, for he seemed most adapted to this work, 
being gentle and affectionate toward the little ones; while Salvatierra discoursed outside with the adult natives 
about the doctrine of Christ and the customs of civilized life. Mass was recited on certain days, and every one 
could take part in an orderly way. After the exercises were over, boiled corn was given to the natives, and the 
hungry creatures probably relished this more than they did the services; but in time they appeared interested and 
desired to be accepted as converts. 

Religious progress was slow. When early summer came cactus berries were ripe; this was the most exuberant 
and delicious crop in those vast fields of desolation. No inducement could withhold the natives from the harvest. 
They were heedless of the salvation of their souls, and even of boiled corn, until they had feasted to repletion 

[82] 



THE MISSIONS OF LOWER CALIFORNIA 

upon the food of their gods. When this happv season was ended, they would turn their attention to the 
missionaries and listen to instruction, and the mission work again advanced. 

Loretto had become the spiritual luminary, and the only one in that benighted wilderness, but it could not 
enlighten the entire peninsula. Distant territory was therefore explored with a view to the founding of other Missions. 
Water was discovered about forty miles from Loretto sufficient to irrigate several acres, and it was utilized at 
once. Salvatierra had a house built for the priests' home, and a chapel. He likewise opened a road from the 
locality to Loretto. Father Piccolo took possession and began work among the natives. In 1700, Father Ugarte, 
who had been a prominent factor in Jesuit life in the City of Mexico, joined the Loretto Mission, and to his 
energy was attributed largely the creation of the Pious Fund. He was, like every member of his Order who 
was intended for important service, a finished scholar. Of gigantic build and incredible strength and daring, he 
was a terror to unruly natives; yet kind of heart and of gentle manners. It is said that, unable to find the 
Mission vessel after wandering on the coast for several hundred miles on foot, he procured a castaway boat, 
repaired it, and made the trip across the gulf to Loretto Bav, amid adverse currents, diverse winds, and perilous 
waters. 

Loretto was but a humble village at the time, with a storehouse and barracks, cottages for the workmen, 
and an adobe house for the priest. A few cattle and sheep from Sonora fed upon natural herbage near the springs 
and coast; but the land would yield to tillage. Such was the condition of these Missions at the close of 
the third year of their existence. When Ugarte arrived at the new Mission with soldiers and men, the natives 
fled to the hills. They were afraid, for they deserved punishment, and kept away until Ugarte quieted their 
fears and feasted them with boiled corn. He soon learned their language by the assistance of the children, who 
were ever ready to help him. Then he began to instruct them in his doctrines in a plain manner, and how to 

[83] 



THE MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA AND THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

form good habits, finishing each discourse with the toothsome boiled corn. Indeed, this was about the only food 
he had for his own use. He dug ditches for irrigation with his own hands, and taught the natives how to use 
the tools. This was fun to them for a time; and thus several acres were watered and cultivated. He bore 
their caprices with patience, treating them as wayward children. 

The founding of San Jose de Comondu, about sixty miles from Loretto, took place at this time. Water 
was available here; and Father Mayorga, who was in control, cleared land, made a farm with a vineyard, and 
built schools and a hospital. He established other settlements in the region, and visited them twice a week, 
with great benefit to the natives. After nearly thirty years of faithful work he died and was buried here among 
his Christian converts. 

About this time the old Mission hero, Father Kuehn, passed away. He is said to have converted more 
than fifty thousand Indians, travelled over twenty-five thousand miles in the wilderness of the Southwest, 
generally on foot, often alone, at all times shelterless but for the heavens above him. 

The schools at Loretto educated natives for the work of teaching, because there were not enough priests for 
the duty. 

The tribes of the North were most inclined to Christian instruction; those of the extreme South were 
disposed to be hostile. Through illness, Salvatierra could not visit these tribes, and while on his sick-bed he 
was called to Mexico by the Viceroy for consultation and full information of California. The brave old man, 
at seventy-two years of age, rose from his bed and started for the capital of Mexico, more than a thousand miles 
away. He made the journey on horseback and in a litter until he arrived at Guadalajara, but could go no farther. 
He sent Father Bravo to the Viceroy with full instructions in regard to his Missions, and then his spirit departed 
to God, who had inspired him with devotion to His cause in California for twenty years. This was in 1718. 

[84] 



THE MISSIONS OF LOWER CALIFORNIA 

Father Ugarte was left as Superior. He built a brig at Mulege, which lasted many years and was the 
best and safest on the gulf. This made it practicable to found a Mission at La Paz, one hundred miles south 
of Loretto. Father Bravo was placed in charge. He converted over one thousand there in a few years, until 
he was called to Loretto to relieve Father Piccolo. 

Another Mission was founded at this time on the Pacific coast, west of Mulege one hundred miles, — 
San Purisima Concepcion. Father Tamaral presided over its fortunes. He opened a road between these 
Missions, and the natives responded from every adjoining rancheria and from long distances into the north 
to their influence. In truth, Christianity seemed be in the atmosphere everywhere, and the Missions 
prospered greatly for many years. Like Ugarte, Tamaral laid out farms and made the old desert fruitful. 

At Huasiuipi Everard Heleu settled and, with his men, built a church and house. This became the 
Mission of San Guadalupe. The Governor (former Ensign Lorenzo) left five soldiers for protection because 
of the wildness and remoteness of the country where it was located. During the eight years Father Heleu 
labored he converted many hundred natives. 

At that time Father Guilen founded a Mission settlement between Malabat and La Paz and named it 
Dolores. The Indians were hostile, but Governor Lorenzo subdued them by burning their canoes. Many 
years afterwards almost every native had been converted, and defended Father Guilen and the Mission loyally 
in the war against the Pericus. 

Father Napoli was directed to found the Mission Santa Rosa at the Bay of Palms among the Pericus. 
They were belligerent, and against the new faith. They were likewise polygamists, though polygamy was not 
general on the peninsula. The Father had entered a sterile field for souls, and in several years converted less 
than a hundred Pericus. 

[8 5 ] 



THE MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA AND THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

New Missions were now formed by the Marquis de Villa and the Mexican Luyando, who joined the 
Society of Jesus and devoted his life to the Mission his family had endowed. Ugarte removed his headquarters 
two hundred miles to the north and founded the Mission of San Ignacio, near Kada Kaaman. This became 
the Mission of Father Luyando. He was received in joy by hundreds of the natives, and some partook 
of the sacrament. There were, however, some who practised necromancy, and were in deadly enmity with 
the Missions, which they told the Indians would destroy the faith of their fathers and had already made the 
country accursed by driving away the game. The Jesuits in time rooted these superstitions from the minds of 
the natives in a great degree. 

Water in abundance was found here and the soil was cultivated broadly; wheat, fruits, flocks, and herds 
blessed the Mission and gave food to the converts in plenty. There were several stations connected with the 
Mission, and fair roads led out to them. The Indians built adobe houses for their families and learned to 
clothe themselves. 

One more great soul departed to his reward. In 1730, Ugarte, worn out, died at Loretto in his seventy- 
first year. The heroic triumvirate, Kuehn, Salvatierra, and Ugarte, founders of the Missions of Lower 
California, rested from their labors at about the same age. They were of different races, but the warmest 
friends, very much alike in temperament, in leading traits of character, and united in the single purpose of 
redeeming California. 

Some months after Ugarte's death, Father Eechevarri, in charge of the Missions as Visitor, began a Mission 
at Cape St. Lucas, which he called San Jose del Cabo ; this was among the Pericus, the most warlike and 
degraded of all the tribes. Father Tamaral conducted the Mission. During many years he accumulated facts 
upon which the most complete history of the peninsula was long afterwards written. 

[86] . 



THE MISSIONS OF LOWER CALIFORNIA 

About this time Father Guilen was appointed Superior of the Missions in succession to Ugarte. The 
Pericus gathered in hundreds and destroyed the Santa Rosa Mission, the Santiago, the La Paz, and the Del Cabo, 
and the whole south coast region was involved in turmoil and peril from petty wars that ensued. But as 
evidence that Indian nature was not entirely depraved, the first assurance of better days came from the heathen 
themselves. Converts and those friendly to mission work arrived at Loretto in great numbers, informing the 
priests that they were still loyal, and loved the cause of Christ. Only a trifling punishment was awarded the 
hostiles. 

At the time of Ugarte's death there were fifteen Missions on the peninsula, some prosperous and the 
others in fair condition, with several thousand natives directly or indirectly under their influence. To push the 
system north and into Alta California was the aim of the Jesuit priesthood, but the war and the expulsion of 
the Jesuits hopelessly defeated it. It was the happy fortune of the Franciscan Order to enter the Golden State 
and make the memory of their lives and labors immortal. 

The indomitable Jesuits toiled on until 1767, when the order of the King expelled them. It came 
suddenly, like the lightning's stroke. 

For nearly a century the Jesuit had toiled and suffered without hope of earthly reward, to establish 
Missions for the benefit of the savages in Lower California. Fifteen of these had been founded before the 
native war. Four of them were destroyed at that time, but afterwards restored. Salvatierra had founded six, 
and Ugarte seven, in twenty years. Two more were added to the list after the death of these padres, by 
Eechevarri, the Visitor. 

St. Ignacio was at this time the most northerly Mission; but a priest was sent north from San Ignacio to 
found the Mission of Santa Gertrude. Father Retz was in charge there, and in a few years it became very 

[87] 



THE MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA AND THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

prosperous; in fact it excelled in converts — had about twelve hundred — and produced from the soil more 
wealth than any other Mission. Water was abundant and the land fertile. 

Five years after this Fathers Cousaq and Retz, who were the energetic explorers of that day in the cactus 
districts, discovered a hot sulphur spring at Adac, and chose it as the site of a Mission; but Cousaq died 
immediately afterwards. He had been nearly thirty years on the peninsula. Three years later the Mission was 
founded at Adac and endowed in 1762 by the munificence of the Countess of Granada, and was dedicated in 
respect to the pious memory of St. Francis Borgia. It was about one hundred miles north of Santa Gertrude, 
in the Cocopah desert. Father Link was conductor of this Mission. He found a large flowing spring some 
distance away and cultivated a number of acres, raising all food products and fruits incident to sub-tropical 
climate and soil. It grew into an important Mission, with some two thousand Christian converts, clothed and 
fed from its resources. 

The last Mission north — the Santa Maria — was founded in 1767, on the thirty-first parallel of latitude, 
twenty-five miles west of the gulf. Father Arnes was the resident priest here, but his services soon closed, for 
the order of expulsion was issued that year. Captain Portola, afterwards Governor of Alta California, went 
there with the Franciscans, with a company of soldiers from Spain, and carried out the decree. 

The Franciscans were ordered by the King to take control of these Missions. Junipero Serra, as Superior, 
with sixteen priests from the College of San Ferdinand, in the City of Mexico, arrived at Loretto in the 
Spring of 1768. Father Palou, the boyhood friend of Serra, was assistant. The priests were at once sent to 
their Missions, travelling on foot, — the custom of these men. 

Immediately trouble began. The soldiers insisted on the right to control the property, but would permit 
the priests to possess the churches and homes built for them, and to manage spiritual matters. This was 

[88] 




Copyright, iq02, Detroit Photographic Co. 



San Xavier Mission, Tucson, Arizona 



THE MISSIONS OF LOWER CALIFORNIA 

against the orders of the King, who gave the priests absolute control of the Missions. Serra was left practically 
without rights, except to instruct the natives and conduct religious services. Irrigation and cultivation ceased, 
the provisions were wasted, the flocks recklessly slaughtered; the Indians, being ill-treated and poorly fed, fled 
to the mountains. The Missions were on the way to swift dissolution. At this perilous hour Don Jose 
Galvez, the ruling official above the Viceroy, arrived. He investigated affairs, turned the soldiers out of power, 
and ordered the Missions under the control of Serra. But matters did not prosper. 

Galvez, with the best of motives, interfered with the Missions. He suppressed the San Luis and Dolores 
Missions. He likewise changed the Mission of Santiago to a parish under a secular priest, thus deranging the 
entire Mission system by introducing two forms of government, in their nature antagonistic. He sought to 
average the populations at the Missions by removing hundreds from their old homes to new ones and distant 
Missions, to begin life over again. The consequences were that many were made destitute, and epidemics 
dotted the land with new-made graves. He applied the Pious Fund to other purposes than the support of 
Mission life. Had he listened to the advice of Serra and Palou, who had been trained in the Cerro Gordo 
Missions in the dark mountains of Mexico, the intelligent convictions thus formed would have led to beneficial 
results. But in Alta California he redeemed all the mistakes he had made in the peninsula, and became the 
organizing and practical power that made possible the great success of the Franciscans there. 

An expedition was ordered and prepared by Galvez to enter the Bay of San Diego in the Spring of 
1769, to take possession of Alta California. Junipero Serra was appointed President of the Missions to be 
founded there, and Padre Palou was left as President in the peninsula. 

Father Palou found serious difficulty in conducting the Missions that had been so disorganized. An 
epidemic occurred in the South, and a hundred died at Dolores and San Luis Gonzago Missions; a hundred 

[89] 



THE MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA AND THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

more escaped to the mountains. The following year the crops were devoured by locusts, and the next year by 
drought. Many of the flocks and herds were, by the order of Galvez, driven to Alta California. 

In 1 77 1 Sergeant Barri was made Governor of the peninsula, and claimed control of the Missions. He 
was so violent and obstructive that Father Palou decided that it was useless for the Franciscans to remain in 
the peninsula; accordingly, it was arranged that the Order of Dominicans should assume charge of the 
Missions on the peninsula. They were transferred in 1772, but they could not restore energy to the decaying 
Missions. Constant interference by Governor Barri and his successors baffled the priests, and so discouraged 
the natives that they left the Missions to return to their wild life. In 1825 Mission life had almost 
disappeared from the peninsula. In i860 the buildings had fallen into ruins, and the cultivated lands had 
become barren wastes. 



[90] 



THE MISSIONS OF TEXAS 

CHAPTER XXXII 
THE MISSIONS OF TEXAS 

THE Franciscans had almost exclusively the field of Texas Missions. The three principal Orders of 
the Church that founded and operated the Missions of New Spain were the Franciscans, the Jesuits, 
and the Dominicans. The first had their chief fields in Texas, Alta California, Sonora, and 
Chihuahua; the second, in Lower California, Old and New Mexico, and Arizona; the third in Old Mexico 
and Lower California. Large tracts were conveyed to the Missions, and such privileges as were needful for 
their purposes. 

The following are the Missions of Texas. 

Adaes, in honor of Our Lady del Pilar, is supposed to have been founded in 171 8, on the Sabine River, 
by Governor Alarcon, of the Province of Coahuila and Texas, near the French fort at Natchitoches. A 
presidio was built for the soldiers and garrisoned strongly to watch the French. In 17 16 Captain Domingo 
Ramon was sent to Texas with a small squad of soldiers and friars to establish Missions, and it is sometimes 
asserted that he founded this Mission, on the Honda Creek, fifteen miles from the fort. It was always an 
inferior Mission, and never prospered much. In 1768 it had a church and some thirty houses. The presidio 
was probably more important than the Mission at that time, as there was another fortress on the Trinity. 
Spain and France both claimed the province. In 1790 the Mission was about deserted, but Bishop Maria and 
Governor Cardero were there in 1805, and the prelate is said to have baptized two hundred neophytes in the 
old chapel. The site can now be found by none but zealots. 

[9i] 



THE MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA AND THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

Our Lady de Los Dolores, on the Acs Bayou, was not far from San Augustine, and appeared in priestly 
records as a living Mission about 17 15. It is not now known who founded it, and it never brought forth 
much fruit — not enough to make history. It was abandoned in 1772. 

The Alamo is the most noted Mission of all in Texas, not for its sanctity, but because it was besieged 
and taken by Mexico from those that revolted against her government in 1836. As a Mission it was not a 
success. From the hour of its location on the Rio Grande almost to its final location at San Antonio, it was 
a restless and movable shrine. Founded in 1700, under the name of San Francisco Solano, it was removed in 
1703 to Ildephonso ; again in the year 1710 it was returned to the Rio Grande. Still again it was transferred 
to San Antonio, and dedicated in the name of San Antonio de Valero, the duke who was Viceroy of Mexico. 
Yet more restless, it was moved to the Military Plaza in the city in 1732; and lastly, in 1744, it took its 
final departure over the river to another site in the city, where it has since been quietly anchored. It assumed 
the name of Alamo, and was used as a church for the populace. It was a misnomer to call it a Mission, 
unless it belongs to a class of itinerant Missions. 

Concepcion La Purisima de Acuna is located on the left bank of the river, about two miles below the city,, 
It was projected by the Viceroy in 1722, after whom it was named, but no steps were taken to build it until 173 1, 
when Captain Perez and Father Bergaro laid the corner-stone. It never developed into a prosperous Mission, and 
was closed to work when Zebulon Pike visited it in 1807, while exploring the West and Arkansas River regions. 

San Francisco de La Espada — meaning the Mission of the Sword — was first located on the Medina River 
in 173 1, but was removed in 1750 to San Antonio, to escape the raids of the Apaches. Like many other 
Missions in Texas, this was but a dwarf in the Mission fields, and is not interesting except for its pious 
purpose, and because it is one of the links in the chain. Life among the Apaches for twenty years raises the 




Photograph by S. L. Willard 



Concepcion La Purisima de Acuna Mission, Texas 



THE MISSIONS OF TEXAS 

presumption that the priests had courage ; but it was a fruitless field, where none were converted but by Father 
Kuehn, and that but transiently. 

Our Lady of Guadalupe, in Victory County, known sometimes as Mission Valley, was projected, it is said, 
by Don Domingo Ramon; but this is mere tradition. His plan was supposed to be to open up ditches for 
the irrigation of the valley and to protect it by a presidio, and in time he would develop a prosperous Mission. 
Little is known about it, except that there are extensive ruins in the valley. 

La Bahia Mission — Del Espiritu Santo — -at Goliad, was begun in 171 8. It is supposed to have been 
projected by Domingo Teran, who founded many Missions. The presidio always had a Mission connected 
with it, either within its grounds or outside as a separate establishment ; so the priests were ever present. The 
old Mission of Aranama, on the east side of the river, was nearly opposite La Bahia. Both these Missions 
had their day and did their work of beneficence among the Indians, but it is impossible to give details of 
either their history or traditions. The Goliad Chapel still shelters the pious. 

La Trinidad. Tradition says that this Mission was founded by Governor Teran, in 1691, when he 
explored Texas with a party of priests for that purpose. He and Don Domingo Ramon, who where favorites 
with the Indians, at this time devoted a few busy years projecting and founding presidios and Missions in 
various places. The site was on the Trinity River, near the town of Alabama, but this site was deserted in a 
short time for another at Nacogdoches. The Indians made trouble; the river became troublesome by overflows; 
and the malarial climate completed the causes of removal. 

Our Lady of Loretto. This Mission, projected by Don Ramon in 1 621, on Matagorda Bay, was soon 
given up. 

Our Lady of Nacogdoches. This Mission was founded by Don Ramon in 1716, and prospered until 

[93] 



THE MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA AND THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

1772, when contentions between the French and Spanish made it necessary to remove the Indians to San 
Antonio. The Mission was then garrisoned to hold the French in check at Nacogdoches. The stone fort of 
1778 still remains. 

Our Lady of Orgnizacco. This Mission was founded in 1716, on the San Jacinto River, to instruct and 
convert a tribe of that name; but in 1772 the Indian converts were removed to San Antonio. 

Rosario. In 1730 this Mission was started near Goliad, but soon abandoned. 

San Fernando was a chapel in San Antonio in 1730, amplified into a cathedral in 1868, but did net 
develop into a Mission. 

San Jose de Aguayo was founded in honor of Governor Aguayo of Texas, in 1720. The buildings were 
begun two years earlier, but not completed until fifty-one years afterwards. When finished they were 
magnificent, and surpassed every Mission east of the Rio Grande. They were located on the river, about four 
miles below San Antonio. The Mission was noted for its beautiful statues and decorative paintings. It was 
built in the Moorish style of architecture, and its great, glittering dome was visible on a clear, sunny day for 
more than a hundred miles. The Indians called it the Day-Star of their Manitou, and many of them 
worshipped it. The • carving and painting were the work of a Moorish artist from Seville, whose ancestor, 
centuries before, ornamented and chiselled the statues for the halls of the Alhambra; so runs the legend. The 
grand dome has long since fallen. The statues of the Queen of the Angels, and many others, have been 
mutilated by barbaric hands. The beautiful sculptured figures and decorations upon the outer walls have 
suffered the same fate. Wealth, beauty, and art strove to make it the wonder of those days, and still the love 
of the wonderful draws to it scores of visitors every year to gaze and meditate upon its grand ruins, beauty of 
location, and fateful history. It now stands upon the elevated tableland overlooking the river, a solitary 

[94] 




Photograph by S. L. JVillard 



San Jose de Aguayo Mission, Texas 



THE MISSIONS OF TEXAS 

monument of the sad fortunes of the old padres. This in its time was the kingly Mission of Texas, like San 
Luis, Rey de Francia, of Alta California, but it has not, like that, been restored. 

San Juan Capistrano is six miles below San Antonio, on the east side of the river. It was founded in 
1732. It was never a leading and important Mission, but simply a colony, founded as an experiment. It was 
one of the unfortunates that were abandoned from poverty or other causes ; yet its buildings as studied and 
viewed from the ruins would indicate wealth at the time of construction. 

San Saba was founded in 1734, in Menard County. This was among the Comanches, a powerful and 
war-like tribe. During twenty years the padres made many converts. When the silver mine, the Las Almagres, 
was discovered in 1752, the Indians became victims of the rapacious miners and adventurers. The Comanches 
turned in defence of their rights, and with no sense of discrimination, killed the missionaries and burned the 
Mission. Many obscure Missions in the Southwest, for real or fancied wrongs against the Indians, not 
committed by the padres or their followers, were destroyed. In the regions ranged by the Apaches are still 
found ruins believed to be on the sites of old Missions. Among the priesthood Father Kuehn was the exception 
who won the friendship of these savages. On the upper Nueces, Brazos, Texas, and Colorado Rivers are found 
these ruins without a living name. In Texas all operative Missions were secularized by Governor Don Pedro 
de Navo in 1794; then their property and control were transferred to the clergy of the parishes. 

San Antonio de Bexar, the first important settlement by the Spaniards in Texas, was the central point 
around which clustered the great Missions of this province. Some of them are now restored sufficiently for the 
use of the secular clergy. The Order of Franciscans did a noble work here, but not comparable with their 
success in Alta California. The continual raids of the Comanches and the hostility of France were serious 
obstructions to Mission progress. 



THE MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA AND THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

CHAPTER XXXIII 
THE MISSIONS OF NEW MEXICO 

THE ' Missions of New Mexico in 1680 showed a population of twenty-five thousand, of which 
probably twenty-five hundred were Spaniards. Neither in importance, wealth, nor influence did they 
compare with the great Missions of the eighteenth century, established in other provinces of Mexico. 
From the records of the Church, made mainly of the reports of the priests in control at the time, is derived 
what knowledge is available on the subject, and these give but little information in regard to each of these 
quasi Missions. The following notes are taken from the reports of 1680 and 1691. 

Seneca (San Antonio), above Guadalupe del Paso, founded in 1630 by P. Arteaga, succeeded by P. Garcia 
de Zuniga, or San Francisco, who is buried there. Piros nation ; Convent of San Antonio ; vineyard ; fish 
stream. 

Socorro, above Semern ; of Piros nation ; 600 inhabitants. Founded by P. Garcia. 

Alamillo (Santa Ana), 3 1 miles above Socorro ; 300 Piros. 

Sevilleta, 51 miles from Alamillo across river; Piros. 

Isleta (San Antonio), where a small stream, with the Rio del Norte, encloses a fertile tract. Convent built 
by P. Juan de Salos; 2,000 inhabitants of Tiguas nation; named for the alamo trees which shade the road. 

Puray, or Purnay (San Bartolome), 1 1 miles from Sandia (Alameda) ; aoo Tiguas. 

Sandia (San Francisco), 11 miles from Puray; 3,000 Tiguas. Convent, where P. Estevan de Perea, the 
founder, is buried; also the skull of P. Rodrigues, the first martyr, is venerated. 

[96] 



THE MISSIONS OF NEW MEXICO 

San Felipe, on the river, on a height (apparently on east bank) ; 300 inhabitants with the little pueblo of 
Santa Ana ; of Zures (Queres) nation ; Convent founded by Quinones, who, with P. Geron Pedraza, is buried 
here. 

Santo Domingo, above San Felipe; 150 inhabitants. One of the best convents, where the archives are 
kept, and where in 1661 was celebrated an auto da fe by order of the Inquisition. P. Juan de Escalona is 
buried here. Padres in 1680 — Talaban (one custodio), Lorenzana, and Mondesdeoca. 

Santa Fe Villa, 81 miles from Domingo; residence of the Governor and soldiers, with four padres. 

Tesuque (San Lorenzo), 21 miles from Santa Fe, in a forest; 200 Tiguas (Tehuas) ; P. Juan Bautista Pio. 

Nambe (San Francisco), 31 miles east of Tesuque; 51 miles from Rio del Norte; two little settlements of 
Jacono and Cuya Manque ; 600 inhabitants. P. Thomas de Tirres. 

San Ildefonso, near the river, and 21 miles from Jacona, in a fertile tract, with 20 farms; 800 inhabitants. 
PP. Morales, Sanches, De Pro. and Fr. Luis. 

Santa Clara. Convent on height by the river; 300 inhabitants; a visit a of San Ildefonso. 

Sun Juan.de los Cabelleros. Three hundred inhabitants; visita of San Ildefonso. In sight are the 
buildings of the Villa de San Gabriel, the first Spanish capital. 

All the padres named in the above fifteen Missions were killed in the revolt of the Indians in 1680, as 
they were in eighteen other Missions at the same time. The revolt was attributed to demoniac influences 
upon a people given to idolatry. It is said that a girl, several years before miraculously raised from the 
dead, foretold the uprising and massacre. The tribes were deeply devoted to their primitive faith, and resorted 
to old rites and forms of worship in secret on every opportunity. The priests destroyed their idols and 
punished them severely whenever detected in their devotions. The State taxed heavily ; the soldier had no 

[97] 



THE MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA AND THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

regard for native rights, and no mercy. Had the Missions been in absolute control of the situation the 
rebellion might not have happened, but the curse of Spanish misrule was upon all, and the padres were held 
responsible by the natives for the tyranny of Church and State. The Pueblo, or Zuni Indians, occupied the 
central region of revolt. They had been a peaceful agricultural people for ages, and had a civilization above 
the Aztecs and equal to the Mayas, except in architecture and written language. The soldier entered the Zuni 
country one hundred and forty years before the rebellion and subdued it with fire and sword. The priests 
came immediately in his rear, and vigorously attacked the Zuni creed and worship ; they suppressed it for a 
century, but did not eradicate it; and when the flames of war burst out, the Indian was conquered again, but 
the progress of the Missions was stayed forever. The parish church was substituted, and remains to-day 
administering the rites of the Church and teaching its creed to a population less enlightened than the Zuni. 



[98] 




Copyright, IQ02, Detroit Photographic Co. 

Exterior View and Altar, San Xavier Mission, Tucson, Arizona 



THE MISSIONS OF ARIZONA 

CHAPTER XXXIV 
THE MISSIONS OF ARIZONA 

THE first Mission settlement in Arizona was made in 1732. Father Felipe Segesser founded San 
Xavier del Bac, and Juan Bautista founded San Miguel de Guevavi. These were regular Missions ; 
the Indian rancherias in that region were only visitas. In 1750 a presidio was located at Guevavi. 
The settlements formed by Father Kuehn forty years before had disappeared. Pimeria Alta was the name 
of Arizona at this time. During this year a revolt among the Pimas resulted in the murder of two 
priests of the Missions and nearly one hundred Spaniards. The Missions were deserted, but again occupied 
three years later. This blow from the natives destroyed the prospects and usefulness of all Missions in 
Pimeria. The Moquis in the Northeast were a bone of contention between the Jesuits and Franciscans, 
and this, with the hostility of these cliff dwellers, defeated mission labors with them until the expulsion of 
the Jesuits in 1768. Pimeria was a portion of eastern Sonora, and assumed the name of Arizona in 1846. 
The annals of events in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and early part of the eighteenth century of these 
changing provinces and their boundary lines are so meagre and confused that Mission history is very 
indistinct and unreliable. The Franciscans had sole possession of this field after 1768. There were no 
Missions in Arizona until many years after Father Kuehn's death in 171 1; in fact, there were no Spanish 
Missions save in Santa Cruz Valley. Bac and Guevavi were the only Missions there, yet there were several 
visitas de rancherias in this locality, protected by the garrison at Tubac. The Indian settlements founded 
or visited bv Kuehn have been called Missions by the Spanish historians. The Missions and visitas de 

[ 99 1 



THE MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA AND THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

rancherias were transferred to the Franciscans, but their property had been confiscated from the Jesuits by the 
Government. 

The friars who took control of the Indian settlements had no means of their own, but lived upon 
pensions. They held their little Mission communities together by labors of love, teaching, caring for the sick, 
ministering to the dying, and instructing the children, whom they won by presents. Into their rude chapels, 
built of brush, stone, or adobe, they induced the Indian by persuasion and promises to enter and listen to divine 
service; but they had little influence on his life. The good padres found him heathen and left him heathen. 

As late as 1829 there were no records to show of the existence of Missions in Arizona. Many efforts 
had been made in the Gila River regions since 1640 to establish Missions; but the vastness of this wilderness, 
and its entire control by fierce and savage tribes, made the task of the missionary practically hopeless. The 
visitas de rancherias were resorted to as substitutes for regular Missions, and these were at all times subject to 
every danger and hardship incident to savage life. 

The progress made in Mission life in Arizona from 1768 to 1846, a period of seventy-eight years, is 
shown by the fact that twenty-two visit a stations were permanently established, as well as the two regular 
Missions already referred to. The American invasion of those regions gave the movement greater vigor, until 
in 1 901 the census revealed a membership of forty thousand Catholic women within a large district, of which 
Tucson was the centre. 

THE END 



[ IO °] 



MAR 21 1907 



